Young Justice: Resolute
by Xtremismrk8
Summary: Post-S1 2011. The Team relishes in their victory against Savage, but the damages have been done. With the missing 16 hours, anything could've happened. It's up to the Team & the League to find out what while new problems and challenges arise, all while trying to be teens. "We do to them what we do to the League. We distract them."Universe Altered-ish with OC & new faces. Teen Drama
1. Prologue

Title: Young Justice: Resolute

By: Xtremismrk8

Summary: The Team relishes in their victory against Savage, but the damages have been done. With the missing 16 hours, anything could've happened. It's up to the Team & the League to find out what while new problems and challenges arise, all while trying to be teens. Universe Altered-ish with OC & new faces. Teen Drama with occasional action. Trying to drabble with a serialized thing here.

Disclaimer: I own nothing, just plot. Young Justice is owned by WB and DC comics.

Rating: T

Spoilers: Up to the end of S1

Author's Note: So I got the writing bug again, and after binge-watching YJ again on Netflix, I realized I missed it a lot and craving for some YJ content. Updates are sporadic. This story has been itching at the back of my head for a while so I hope you enjoy it. There's also an OC in here just to shake things up so just a heads up.

Story Notes: Set after Season 1, in 2011, Team Year 1 directly after "Auld Acquaintance." And with this story, anything can happen, anything goes. Hope you enjoy!

Notes: I'm doing a few small revisions on this story and I went back and added some stuff and cleaned stuff up, any mistakes are mine. Bare with me, I'm a little rusty, but I hope you enjoy my story. Either way, thanks for stopping by.

* * *

TEAM YEAR 1

"Prologue"

* * *

As the new year rung and everyone celebrated, in the back of their minds, they all knew that something had changed, and the way they view their world has changed forever. Whatever happens next, all they can do now is remain resolute.

 **The Watchtower  
** **02:25**

Roy couldn't believe it; he's been kicking himself about it for the past hour. He, Red Arrow, was the mole, and he didn't even know it. He's been tireless searching for so long for the mole, and yearning to become a member of the Justice League, only to realize that it was all just a sham, a twisted and sadistic plan that the Light had for the League. And if they succeeded entirely, who knows what could have happened? _It's my entire fault._ Roy thinks to himself. _Roy, I'm not even the real Roy Harper, I never was. I was just an empty husk that the Light used, a means to an end._ He couldn't take it; he felt his chest tightening as he thought about it more and more, the gnawing sensation at the back of his head. He felt like he was going to be sick. He needs space, he needs time to think, to process it all. All he knows is one thing, he's going to look for the real Roy, and he won't stop until he finds him. He proclaims to Green Arrow and Canary, both who nod in agreement as they take Roy out of the Watchtower.

Now the mood of the room shifts, an eerie silence engulfs the scene as Batman, Robin, Aquaman, Aqualad, Red Tornado, and Captain Marvel all look at each other worried.

Aqualad exhales a breath he didn't know he was holding for a while; he is the first to break the silence, "Something else is wrong." He surmises as he turns to Batman and Robin, looking for an answer. Both look at each other, their whites of their eyes showing their emotion.

Robin types on the computer and pulls up a holo-screen, showcasing pictures of Superman, Batman, Wonder Woman, Green Lantern, Hawkgirl, and Martian Manhunter. "The entire league was under Savage's spell for just over a day. We've accounted for most of that time but these 6 went missing for a full 16 hours we can't account for."

Robin looks back at a concerned Batman, his grim expression evident even through his cowl. "16 hours... What did we do?"

* * *

 **Undisclosed Location  
** **03:00 EST**

"I trust the mission was a success?"

"Yes and no. Still, the objectives were met, given the time we had. The plan was executed to perfection, despite our small setback."

"Ah, so the young heroes intervene again."

"Yes, their pressing interference has become nuisance. Still, now with Phase 1 finally done, we can finally move onto Phase 2."

"I assume that by now the League has become aware of their unaccounted time, they will be searching."

"Let them try. In the meantime we can keep them off the trail."

"What about the children?"

"We'll do the same to them for what we do for League. We distract them."

"They'll never see it coming."

"No, they won't."

* * *

 **Mount Justice  
** **January 7, 2011 10:27 EST**

"*Recognized: Robin B-0-1.*" The computer announced as the Zeta Tube flashed the blinding light that filled the Cave's hollowed out interior. Robin stepped out of the tube, in his street clothes and signature sunglasses. Something was off about him; he walked a little funny, like he hadn't been sitting correctly for few days. Robin walked into the Cave to find Aqualad doing monitor duty on the cave's computer. Robin, despite many things he could do as the boy wonder, was exhausted. He rubbed the back of his neck with a tired expression on his face as Kaldur stopped what he was doing and walked up to him, Kaldur's face hopeful for an answer. Yet, the look of disappointment on Robin's face was evidence enough that he had no answer.

Still, Kaldur inquires, "Good to see you, it's been far too long my friend, how have you been? Any news?" He hadn't seen him in days; as he had been tireless searching for the missing 16 hours with Batman while the Team had been enjoying each other's company here every now and then. Sadly, Robin's response was less than enthusiastic.

"I'm fine," He stretches his arm. ", feelin' the aster, more or less. As for your other question: no, unfortunately not." He groaned in exhaustion as he cracked and stretched his back. "6 members of the JL gone for 16 hours and we still have no idea where they went. So far all we can think of is that it had to be somewhere discreet, otherwise Catherine Cobert, the League's public affairs officer, would have told us if any public incidents occurred with the League. But from the looks of it, it's as if the League just vanished into thin air and then came back. At the moment we don't have any leads, and with Savage and Klarion on the down low, who knows what happened at the tower other than them. Still, we haven't given up, and we won't. But for now," He runs a hand through his hair, "I guess we just, I dunno, act as if everything's okay. As far as we're concerned, we're just glad it's all over, for the moment."

"For the moment." Kaldur furrows his eyebrows at the statement. What could they do really? From the looks of it, this is only the beginning, so all they can do is wait as it unfolds.

Robin exhales so loudly that it brings Kaldur back from his train of thought. He's never really seen him so tired and exhausted from all the searching. He places a reassuring hand on his shoulder. "Still, it has only been 8 days. Give it time; perhaps the answers will come eventually."

"I sure hope so." Robin exclaims with a slight tremble in his voice. He arches as an eyebrow as he looks around, the Cave being, well, besides Kaldur, is practically empty. "Um, where is everyone?" It's been 8 days since the incident at the watchtower, and while everything so far has been great, it's never been this quiet.

"Conner and Zatanna are with M'gann, waiting for her cheerleading practice to finish." Aqualad chimes, he would have gone too, but he preferred to stay inside from the cold. "Artemis and Wally are in the Central city mall with his friends, and Raquel is with Icon. Red Tornado is at the Watchtower. As for me, I've been on monitor duty in the Cave." He adds the last part as an afterthought.

"And Roy?"

Kaldur face grimaced as he breathed a heavy sigh. "I had spoken to him a few days ago, he is troubled, to say the least. He feels guilty about what happened. He went with Green Arrow to collect his thoughts. He says he and Green Arrow have made the search for the original Roy a top priority and will inform us if he has found anything. And should they need assistance, we will come."

Robin nods. "Noted. Is there anything else?"

"None that I am aware of."

"Ah." Robin pipes up a little. He smiles, an idea popping into his head. "Well, it looks like we've got some downtime to ourselves. So far there have been no incidents and Batman doesn't have any missions for us. We might as well get our mind off of things." Aqualad nods in agreement. He presses a button the Holo-computer. The floor lights up as Robin takes off his jacket. "Wanna spar?"

"Absolutely," He says cheerfully, but adds, "Though I do recommend you rest first, you look tired." He says cheerfully, Robin can clearly tell he hasn't been doing much other than monitor duty.

Robin waves off the suggestion. "All the more reason to spar, besides, I'm never too tired to not spar. Now, what's the score again?"

"It's 18-19, my favor." He muses.

"That's not how I remember it." Robin exclaims, a small grin growing on his face as he takes a fighting stance.

Aqualad follows, matching his stance.

"Let's see shall we?"

"I'm game."

"*Starting combat simulation. Begin.*"

* * *

 **Happy Harbor High Gym  
** **11:35 EST**

"Gosh, it's freezing." Zatanna says to Conner as she shoves her hands into her pockets of her fluffy purple overcoat, hopefully to gain some warmth. The cold sends shivers down her spine, and despite the indoor heater they have in the gym, she's still skeptical that it's actually making the room less cold. That or she could just be sick. Zatanna wonders who came up with the idea of practicing during winter break, like it's great and everything but some people just need a break. Conner barely notices her comment, he just shrugs as usual. She looks at the cheerleaders, impressed on how they can handle the weather or the fact that they don't have the same type of warmth she has, with the thin layers of leggings and thermals they're wearing as they do somersaults. Thankfully, the winter season doesn't last that long in Happy Harbor, so she might as well enjoy it while she can.

Anyways, Conner hasn't talked that much the whole time, they had a conversation a while ago about him and Superman and how things have been going great so far, despite a few awkward stages. She chuckles at the idea of the Man of Steel being flustered when talking to his son. Still, after that there wasn't really much to talk about, but she understands, because it's Conner; he's not really much of talker, so it's actually nice to see him open up for change. And she doesn't mind the silence; it's a nice refreshing change. Conner on the other hand has been studying, well observing M'gann and her teammates' techniques. He thinks him watching her will better help her find out any mistakes that she did and motivate her to do better. He hasn't taken her eyes off her since they began. Zatanna thinks it's really sweet that Conner's super invested in M'gann, as it's not something you really see nowadays. Especially for her, ever since Robin...

While Zatanna really loves watching the cheerleaders work, she gets bored, like really bored. She's seen the routine a few hundred times now or so. She's more of a doing person. And while the flips and somersaults the cheerleaders do are awesome, she just needs a distraction.

She's always needed distractions lately now that she thinks about it. She's talked to Canary, she's had talks with M'gann, Artemis, and Raquel, and while it's nice and she's glad she's got this really amazing support system, but she still feels guilt. Walking around in the cave isn't an option anymore, staying up late at night isn't healthy for her, and her home in New York is still empty, especially after she caused her father to... The point is everything's fine, just... fine. But it could be better. She knows it could have been better.

Still, it's always good to be here to support a good friend, especially M'gann, who's done so much for her. She's like the big sister she's always wanted, maybe a little greener and weirder than usual, but she's never been one to judge. She's probably just a little impatient because she's hungry. Her stomach growls at the thought.

Conner on the other hand has never felt better. Superman-er Clark has finally been talking to him, albeit in small and slightly awkward conversations. Clark's treading lightly on the situation, and Conner knows it. He knows Clark doesn't want to mess up like before. And that's good; it's a step up, especially since last year. Clark says that Conner could finally meet up with his parents back in Smallville during the break. Conner loves the idea of meeting Clark's parents, yet the thought of himself messing up somehow still lingers in the back of his mind. He hasn't really noticed the time go by; since he's been watching M'gann perform instead. _Things have been going great._ He thinks, but he still feels like there's something missing.

 _'All done.'_ M'gann says over the psychic link. She grabs her things and prepares to leave as the team gets ready. Zatanna jumps right up in glee, just not enough to for the cheerleaders to notice as she pulls her handbag over her shoulder, looking rather eager. Conner and Zatanna both start walking down the steps of the bleachers to meet up with M'gann. She shuffles through her bag and sees her phone light up as a text comes in. It's from Gar. Her face lights up at the text.

 **Garfield:** Hey Sis! When are you gonna come and visit again? Also Mom says hi. :) ~

She chuckles; she can't wait to see her little brother.

 **Megan:** Soon, I'll organize something Gar. Tell her I say hi. ~ Sent, Read

 **Garfield:** Noted Sis. She says hi too! Can't wait! ~ Received

She barely contains her smile when she sees Wendy and Karen walk up to her.

"That was great practice today Megs, though it was pretty chilly though." She says, putting on her coat for warmth.

"Day in a life of cheerleading," Wendy surmises, drinking her hot cocoa. "Just be glad we don't have to do it during the actual winter, otherwise I _definitely_ wouldn't come, no thanks, not even if I was Team captain."

Karen chuckles, she rolls her eyes at the statement. "Girl, you know you'll come regardless, it's like an obsession for you." She jokes.

Still, it rings true. Wendy puts her hands up in defeat, "Alright, guilty as charged, it's a great way to get out of the house. And today's new technique was fun, and I'm glad the Megan's finally getting the hang of it." Wendy says to Megan proudly, nudging at her shoulder.

"You're a fast learner." Karen muses to Megan.

"Thanks. Let's just say I learned from the best." She beams.

"Thanks, still there is a lingering problem though…" Wendy trails off smirking.

Megan, worried, immediately spits out, "What lingering problem? If it's my posture I'm sure I can—"

"No, Megs, not that kind of problem, relax." Wendy immediately calms her down, chuckling a little. "Sorry, I mean it's just we've never actually hung out since you joined."

"Oh I see," She smacks her head, finally getting it. "Hello Megan! You're right; Sorry, I've just been so caught up with um—stuff, that I've been busy. But sure I'd love to hang out. Um-when exactly? I mean I'll have to be sure, I don't want it to affect any of my work days."

"Are you free next week? Mal's inviting everybody from school to the Happy Harbor Bowl-o-Rama. You can bring your friends too." Wendy gestures over to Conner and Zatanna, who are waiting by the gym door.

"Great! That sounds like it's going to be fun! I'll text you girls later, have a great day!" Megan says happily, as she grabs her bag and waves goodbye to Wendy and Karen, and walks up to Conner and Zatanna.

"What was that about?" Zatanna smiles, she notices M'gann's more than usual beaming, which means she has some news.

"We got invited to hang out with them! I can't wait; I've never actually bowled before!"

"That sounds like it's going to be fun." Zatanna places a hand on her stomach.

Conner notices as they all walk out. "You hungry?"

"Starving."

* * *

 **Central City mall  
** **13:30 EST**

Screams of laughter and joy erupted through the arcade, mainly Artemis'. Wally had taken Artemis to the mall for some lunch and had introduced her to some of his friends, well, one or two that he met last year. How it escalated to an arcade match is beyond him. So far things had been going smoothly on this not-so-first-date-first-date. They had been playing at the arcade for who knows how long, (especially after Robin scored him a large amount of cash), and they've been playing non-stop for the whole time. While it was fun, the whole time he's also been getting destroyed by Artemis in almost every game here. Actually no, she's beaten him in every single game here so far. While it should upset him, it doesn't, well not as much, unless it was Rob who playing against him, and then he'd get mad. Instead he considers himself how lucky he really is. He looks at Artemis and smiles, her long blonde hair flowing, the girl of his dreams was finally his, and nothing would change that. Despite the rocky starts, they pulled through.

Still, despite everything; it doesn't mean he'll let her beat him at everything in this arcade. There's nothing like a good old little competition to help motivate him.

"Babe, you and me. 1 on 1. I'll show you my moves." He gestures at the basketballs, wiggling his eyebrows.

"I don't think you want another stroke to your ego." Artemis says playfully as she smiles, with the determination of a thousand warriors evident on her face. "And not to brag, but I'm still a better shot." She said as a matter-of-faculty.

"Winner gets a kiss." He smirks as waggles his eyebrows. She rolls her eyes as she smiles at that, playfully smacking him. He smiles back at her. She knows that either way, he wins. They both do.

* * *

 **Mount Justice  
** **20:16 EST**

"*Recognized: Miss Martian B-0-5, Superboy B-0-4, Zatanna B-0-8.*" The Computer calls out as the 3 teens walk in, carrying grocery bags and a hot chocolate tray.

"Hey guys, what's up—whoa."

The scene they walk into shouldn't surprise them, but it does. The room is filled with the blue light emanating from the floor as they see Robin and Aqualad going at it, sparring like there's no tomorrow. They're trading and blocking blows as they dodge and attack each other's moves. The 3 teens stare at them as they track their every move. From the looks of it they've been sparring for hours nonstop. Their sweat permeates through both their tank tops, looking damp as they have been trying to subdue each other. Despite the computer announcing they were here, Kaldur and Robin were far too focused on the fight. It takes them a while for both Robin and Aqualad to notice that they are there, and honestly, the 3 of them really don't mind, especially Zatanna.

They groan and moan as they both hit the floor.

"*Robin: Fail. Aqualad: Fail.*" The computer says as it shuts off.

"Um, how long exactly have you guys been at it?" Zatanna asks with concerned look.

"All...day." Robin wheezes out, grinning.

"Oh wow, and who says you 2 don't have any stamina?" She says with a sultry tone.

"So who won?" Conner asks smirking at them, crossing his arms, wondering who he can spar next.

"46-46." They both say at the same time. Kaldur and Robin look at each other as the both take in a large breath, only to burst out laughing and gasping at the same time. The others look at them with amusement.

"That was fun."

"Indeed it was."

Robin grabs the towels from the benches and tosses one to Kaldur, rubbing the sweat off. "Normally we're not allowed to go all out, but there are no missions at the moment so we thought why not?" Robin chuckles as he says that, he puts a hand on his chest to stop himself from breathing so hard. "Where have you guys been?"

"We were exploring the mall and grabbing some groceries. We ran out of supplies in the kitchen." Robin laughs, probably something to do with Wally. "We even got you guys some hot chocolate." M'gann hums. Zatanna grabs the two hot cocoas and gives them to Kaldur and Robin.

"You look like you could use a perk up." Zatanna says to Robin. "Nice to see you Rob, it's been a while." She smiles.

Robin reciprocates, albeit with a gentle smile. "Thank you M'lady, and likewise, Zee, likewise." Robin hums as he looks at her through his glasses, relieved that she can't see his expression underneath.

"*Recognized: Kid Flash B-0-3, Artemis B-0-7.*" The computer echoes through the Cave. Everyone turns to see them.

"HOWWW!?" Wally says screaming into the Cave. His raises his hands up in defeat as he walks in, Artemis follows suit, laughing.

Everyone looks at the couple in amusement. "I take it you had a good day?" Kaldur says smugly, noticing Wally muttering in the back.

"The best Kal, especially since I beat Baywatch over here in every game in the arcade."

"That's not true! It wasn't every game." Wally crosses his arms, muttering to the side. "Ok, fine maybe _most_ of it." he puffs out.

Everyone's trying their best not to laugh. The only thing that would make this better if Raquel was here. Still, even so, it is good to have the team here together again.

Robin laughs as he claps his hands at the archer; Wally's never going to hear the end of this. He turns to archer with a grin on his face. "As always Artemis, bravo."

"I live to impress, boy wonder." She smirks. "I believe you owe me something though."

He mutters something like, _wait what,_ then he remembers. He takes a pocket change of a $20 out. "For you Miss Crock," He gives her the cash. "As we discussed." He says cheekily.

"You guys bet on me?!" Wally looks in bewilderment.

"Of course not!" He says defensively to KF, before his facade fails him and he chuckles. "I bet on her." He points to Artemis, hands on her hips like she ruled the world. Wally pauses with complete amazement, and a look of utter betrayal at the boy wonder.

He laughs, everyone chuckles. "Let's just say it was money well spent, and your face, priceless." He laughs his signature Robin laugh. Wally just looks up in defeat groaning.

"You know I'll get you back for this bro." He says half-smiling, and thinking of a multitude of pranks coming into his head.

"May the best man win." Robin says as he turns to Artemis, who was talking to Kaldur about today's spar.

"A tie?" Artemis asks.

"Give or take." Aqualad says smiling at the boy wonder. "Though I'd love to see you spar with Robin again."

"You mean _beat_ Robin again?" She chuckles.

"You know Arty; you still haven't beaten me in on a 1 on 1."

She grins; he always does this to rile her up before another sparring match. "Oh really?" She smirks, staring down at the boy wonder. "Because the last time I checked it was 15-14, my favor."

"We were tied, that last drop didn't count."

"Sure it didn't pipsqueak."

"That sounds like a challenge, care to put your money where your mouth is Crock?"

"You're on."

He smiles as that, and then he notices the sharp pain strike through back. "Well, just as soon as I've recovered." He smiles weakly at the archer.

Artemis, chuckles, and notices Wally in the back still grumbling at his defeat. She actually thinks it's kind of cute that Wally can't take the defeat. Artemis kisses Wally on the cheek; his posture suddenly relaxes as he uncrosses his arms, smiling.

"If it's any consolation babe, I had a great time beating you in front of your friends." She laughs.

Wally, still reeling from the kiss, says without thinking, "Woah... Babe, you can beat me anytime." He stops himself soon after. Noticing what he said. "I swear that sounded way better in my head."

Kaldur, M'gann, and Zatanna just grin, Conner and Robin roll their eyes at the comment and Artemis just shrugs it off. Wally's just being a goof, as usual. Same old, same old.

"*Recognized: Rocket B-0-9.*"

"Aw yes, the whole gang's here!"

* * *

 **The Watchtower  
** **January 8, 01:57 EST**

"*ALERT! ALERT!*" The Watchtower computer beeped rapidly. Red Tornado, who had left the Cave to go on monitor duty on the watchtower, looks at the upcoming screens. "*Perimeter breach detected at the Hall of Justice, sector 10.*"

"On screen." Red types on the computer, it shows a shadowy figure attempting to get inside the main quarters of the hall. "Enhance," Red Tornado says, and it shows the full video of the figure attempting to get in. But instead he doesn't, stopping himself and merely staying on the roof, looking through the skyline. "Odd. Watchtower, initiate lockdown."

"*Initiating: Lock-down mode.*"

* * *

 **Gotham City, Omni-Industrial subsidiary**

 **January 8, 01:52 EST**

Commissioner Gordon examines the crime scene with the other officers, rubbing his eyes. ' _It's too damn early for this'_. Suddenly, though it shouldn't surprise him at this point, but it still does, Batman drops down from the shadows. He turns to Bullock.

"Yeah, yeah, I know when I'm not needed." Bullock turns to leave. "Can we give them a five people?"

The Commissioner turns to Batman. "Batman."

"Commissioner. What happened?"

"We got a 911 on a break-in happening here about an hour ago, the CEO's downstairs to confirm if anything was taken, we checked all the feeds, so far it doesn't look like it. Seeing how this has been the second robbery this month with nothing stolen, it seemed suspicious. This guy went through a lot of high tech security to get nothing." He huffs. "His team is doing an inventory check right now downstairs; you're welcome to look at the cameras."

"Second? I assume the first one being the one at a Rev-Tech subsidiary a few days ago."

"You assume correct."

"And there's nothing on the last case a few days ago?"

"Nothing was found, dead-end."

Batman checks the cameras on the computer. He's surprised that the cameras are still intact. Not accounting for the cameras is sloppy. He narrows his eyes at the thought. He looks at the footage as he sees a shadowy figure, looking around the office as he steps from room to room. He starts downloading the data on to the drive.

"Anything?"

Batman stand up he grabs the drive, he turns to Gordon. "I'll examine it and notify you if anything comes up."

"Thanks, you have a good-" He looks around, nowhere in sight, Batman is gone. "-night. Great. Every time. "

...

Batman perches on the rooftop, looking at the Cave's footage of the team, relieved that they at least can keep acting as if everything is normal.

His comm starts beeping. "*Red Tornado to Batman, do you copy?*"

"*Copy. What is it?*"

"*Sensors at the Hall of Justice detected a breach in the perimeter. A lock-down mode was initiated, but it seems if anything this person was not attempting to break in. Sending footage now.*"

Batman looks at the footage. _Why would someone try to break into the Hall?_ He narrows his eyes. "*Something else is going on here.*"

"*Agreed. Do we alert the other Leaguers?*"

"*For now, no. We have more pressing matters to attend to with the missing 16 hours.*"

"*And the Team?*"

His face grimaces. "*I fear the more dangerous task awaits them. So for now-*."

"*Business as usual?*"

"*Business as usual. Batman out.*" He says as he disappears into the night.

A figure looks up at the tower, with pointy ears forming somewhat a shadow of the bat, seeing Batman leap away and disappear. The figure disappears into the shadows, doing the same.


	2. Thief

"Thief"

* * *

 **Mount Justice**  
 **January 8, 13:55 EST**

A block, a jab, a spin kick, and a dodge, that was all the Team was seeing from Conner and Black Canary on the sparring floor of the Cave. Conner had watched her every move meticulously, intently focused on countering and avoiding her hits. He had progressed really far with his training with her, and it showed, very well. He was now more focused and precise with his movements than ever before, he wasn't just rage now. He was channeling his drive with precision. And he enjoyed how far he's come in the past couple of months, not that he'll ever openly admit because, well, that's just him.

This training simulation was mostly for the newbies, mainly Rocket and Zatanna. Still, in a way, it was for all the team. It gave them a sense of freedom and downtime to talk, hang out, and enjoy themselves, despite everything that has happened to them.

All of them are on the side just talking about trivial things while half-paying attention to Canary's and Conner's movements. M'gann and Artemis are teaching Rocket and Zatanna some good blocks to counter attacks if their powers fail. Aqualad watches intently, eager to learn while listening absentmindedly to Wally and Robin arguing about who's the better fighter, only to find out they were just talking about a brawl game and how they'll rematch each other later. And yet, this is about as normal as it can get.

They were all caught off guard as Canary's pace increased; they all started to see the match change in her favor. She moved faster, and Conner started to lose his focus on keeping up. He was trying to match her speed as he tossed a jab; she quickly dodged his punch as she went underneath him, and flipped him over to pin him on the ground.

"Nice throw," She says as she offers a hand to Conner, he nods as he takes it. Everyone claps in congratulations as Canary turns to them. "Now, while I know all of you know this, I'll still have to stress it, especially to new members," She looks over to Zatanna and Rocket, "that in combat both you and your opponent fight at the same pace, matching each other. So the best thing to do is to catch them off guard, switch up the pace, and throw your opponent off when they least expect it, especially if and when your powers or weapons fail you or out of reach."

"So variable acceleration? Got it." Kid flash chimed in.

"Yes, of course." Everyone looked at Canary in agreement. "Now Zatanna and Rocket, on the floor. Let's see how far you've come."

Everyone looked at each other in agreement. Zatanna and Rocket both looked at each other in understanding as Canary started motioning both of them to the floor as Superboy high fived Robin and KF. Zatanna and Rocket both looked at each other with determination as they took their fighting positions on the floor.

"*Incoming transmission from Batman.*" The computer echoed through the Cave.

"Onscreen." Canary said as the screen popped up with Batman.

"Do you have a mission for us?" Wally said anxiously.

"And is it related to the missing 16 hours?" Robin inquired. Batman looked at them sternly.

"*No, the missing hours for now will be a League priority. I have another assignment for this team. 2 days ago there was a reported break-in at a Rev-Tech subsidiary in the warehouse district in Washington. A silent alarm was tripped, and although nothing was reported stolen, we have reason to think otherwise. Your mission is to cover the only other Rev-Tech subsidiary in Washington in the city district, and if necessary apprehend this thief. You are to deploy on the adjacent building overseeing the facility, Rev-Tech itself is a highly independent and secured facility so should you encounter the thief, do not engage until absolutely necessary, do not underestimate him, he hasn't been caught so far and has been connected to over 10 robberies in the past year.*"

"Only 10? Some thief." Wally whispers to Artemis.

Everyone else ignores the comment. "*As stated, do not approach or apprehend unless absolutely necessary. Everyone understand?*"

Everyone looks to other as Aqualad responds, "Understood."

* * *

 **Opposite Building of Rev-Tech, Washington**  
 **21:47 EST**

The Team was perched up on the roof overseeing the building, Robin and Aqualad watched intently over the balcony while Zatanna and Rocket were playing sticks to pass the time. Wally was walking around in circles while Superboy watched with a dull expression, Artemis and Megan looked at each other and yawned, stretching their arms. They were freezing their butts off on this stakeout. They had all come to the conclusion that this stakeout was getting stale, like this-is-so-not-worth-it-in-the-cold stale.

Zatanna: _"No offense guys, but my boredom's getting bored."_ She breathes out a sigh.

Rocket: _"Oh yeah, definitely."_

Superboy: _"Yup."_

KF: _"Same, I'm sooo hungry,"_ He says looking down over the edge, seeing all the restaurants and fast food places that were open.

Artemis: _"When are you ever not hungry?"_ He shrugs.

KF: _"Hey, to be fair babe, this stakeout's been getting pretty dull. We've been here for almost 7 hours there's no way anyone would be dumb enough to bust in there. Besides I'm pretty sure all of us could go for a Big Belly Burger right now."_ He turns to Kaldur, who looks like he was about to tip over for standing in the same place so long. _"Rob?"_

Robin: _"KF could be right..."_ He strokes his chin.

Aqualad: _"Check, if you would please."_ He said, with a slight hint of desperation.

Robin opens his holo-computer as everyone looks over, waiting for an answer.

Robin: _"All security protocols are in place, no one's breaking in there. Place is too airtight."_

The speedster growled so loud that everyone on the team started feeling hungry as well, they all felt their stomachs growl as the realization kicked in.

Miss Martian: _"Perhaps… we could leave, and then come back?"_ She said hesitantly.

Kid Flash: _"Or we could just call this mission a bust and head home Megs."_

Everyone turned to Aqualad, everyone except Conner and Artemis who just shrugged as everyone else pleaded, Aqualad sighed.

Aqualad: _"Perhaps, we can all take a small break. M'gann, call the bioship."_

Miss Martian: _"Of course."_ She said far too happily. They all cheered.

Just then, a small explosion rocked the roof entrance of the building, the door busting open as the thief stepped out.

Robin: _"That's our que!"_

Kid Flash: _"Great, so much for leaving."_

* * *

The door flew open as the Thief tackled it and tumbled outside onto the dark roof, shutting the door immediately as made his hand into fist, pointing it at the door as a small device on top of his hand began to emit a red laser, slowly melting the hinges and sealing the door shut, barely noticing the team behind him as he was tightening his sling bag over his shoulder getting ready to leave.

Suddenly, a shout from behind stops him as he turns to the dark side of the large roof, a bunch of people all in dark clothing.

"Stop!" The boy wonder yelled as the team landed on the roof with the thief. The thief looked at the team; he was stopped dead in his tracks. He looked at them as they looked at him, taking in each other silhouettes. From what they could make out, the thief was about as tall as KF but shorter than Superboy, he was wearing a dark blue jacket with black cargo pants and combat boots, he had a one-sling black backpack, as well as a mask with what looked like a visor that covered his eyes and his entire face except his dark brown hair.

Both parties stood on the roof waiting.

The thief knew he was outmatched, so naturally he said. "Hello... This uh-looks bad right? I don't want any trouble," he says, slowly reaching to the back of his belt as he notices their tense postures. "Annnnd with that I say, goodbye." He waved as he dropped a smoke bomb that engulfed the part of roof where he was standing; the fog was so dense that they couldn't see anything.

Aqualad: _"Rocket, capture him, before he escapes!"_

Rocket: _"Already on it! It pays to have a force bubble."_ She grins in victory as the smoke continually blurs the area. _"I think I got him, though he doesn't seem to be moving much."_

Aqualad: _"Good. Rocket and Miss Martian, knock him out and telekinetically search for the stolen item. We do not want to tamper with any evidence for the police."_ They both nod as they fly down to the robber, the smoke still covering the entire area.

KF: _"Wow, easy mission amirite? Now we can go get some dinner."_

Robin: _"Oh yeah, little overkill for all of us to be here."_

Artemis: _"Easy night for us."_

As Miss Martian and Rocket approached the burglar, all of a sudden a blind flashing light engulfed the roof as the force bubble disappeared. Miss M and Rocket started coughing as the thief threw knockout gas down near them. The entire team groaned and was blinded momentarily as the he went up to both Miss Martian and Rocket and banged their heads, knocking them out.  
"Sorry, had to be done." Superboy hears faintly from the thief.

Superboy: _"Miss Martian?! M'gann?!"_ He said as he got out of the haze of the light. "Mind-link's down!" He turned to the thief screaming.

"Superboy, wait!" Aqualad tried to stop him as vision blurred.

The thief perks up, barely hearing Aqualad's words, "Wait, did he just say-" as he turned Superboy immediately charged at the him, jumping into the smoke. He began throwing blind punches, and then he finally hit him, barely grazing him, but just enough to rip a part of his jacket off.

"UNCOOL DUDE! DO YOU KNOW HOW MUCH THIS THING COSTS?!" The thief screamed as he dodged Conner's punch, placing two circular devices on his chest. He then swung around a blind Conner in the smoke as he attached something to his back. "You ruined my jacket, so this is worth the waste of ammo, but you'll be fine." He said as he pressed a small button on his belt.

Conner was then flung from the roof with the 2 mini circular boosters on his chest, which was followed by putty engulfing his entire body as he landed to another building roof.

In what only seemed to be a matter of seconds, the team saw Conner jump into the smoke to fight the thief, only to come flung out of the roof with a rocket trail to another building.

"Ugh, I can't see anything!" Artemis said as she tried to aim for the thief with her bow, her vision starting to blur, the dizziness throwing her off balance.

Kid Flash started feeling nauseated. "Same here, is ugh-anyone feeling light-headed?"

"It's the gas!" Robin said muffled, trying to cover his mouth.

"Zatanna, clear the roof!" Everyone said as they rubbed their eyes and covered their mouth, their vision barely clearing.

"Raelc eht foor fo lla eht ekoms!" She yelled as the smoke started dissipating, their vision finally clearing.

The thief disappeared as the smoke cleared, he flanked them as he appeared right behind Zatanna and knocked her out.

"Zatanna!" Robin said as he spotted him, still coughing and lightheaded. "KF take him!"

"Ugh-ON IT!" Kid Flash shakes his head, focusing his mind as he ran to the thief and started punching him repeatedly, unable to dodge KF's attacks. Finally, Kid Flash delivered the finishing blow and knocked him down to the floor.

The thief kicked his legs from under him; sweeping him off his feet and making him lose his footing. He grabbed Kid Flash as he pushed him down to the ground, knocking him out.

"KF!" They all screamed in anger.

"This gas is too strong, both of you put your rebreathers and we'll split up, hit him from all sides!" Aqualad ordered as they all dispersed. Artemis and Robin both took him from both sides as he threw his birdarangs and she fired her arrows. The thief barely dodged them as they began attacking him all out once. He was barely able to dodge as the bird and the archer faced him. Aqualad swung from behind and water whipped him to the ground. The thief groaned as they all started walking to him, aiming their weapons. "Enough. Stand down and surrender what you stole. We will give you over to the authorities. "

"Ugh, you don't understand! You're just in my way!" He says as he tries to get out of the bonds.

"Would you like us to repeat the request?"

The Thief struggles, "Those are my options? Wow, sorry, I'm not much of a surrender kind-of-guy, but I can do ya one better." He said as he grabbed a smoke grenade from his pocket as he threw it down. The entire roof was now engulfed in smoke as Aqualad's water whip dissipated. Aqualad started coughing as the smoke separated them.

"Artemis, Aqu-" Robin was cut short as he heard a sound. He looked around carefully, unable to see anything in the smoke. The thief then lunged behind him as Robin quickly turned and started punching him, dodging all of the thief's attacks. He took out his escrimas as he started hitting the thief. The thief dodged them as disappeared in the smoke.

"BEHIND YOU!" Artemis' voice called out to Robin. Robin turned around seeing nothing; the thief then jumped at him from behind, pulling his rebreather and disorienting him before knocking him to the ground.

Aqualad drew his water swords as he prepared himself, the smoke didn't seem like it was going away. Suddenly he heard jabs and blows being thrown, the he heard Artemis' voice as he drew closer to the sound.

He found Robin lying on the floor knocked out. The thief then jumped at him with Robin's escrima sticks, deflecting Kaldur's attacks as Kaldur knocked him into one of the electric generators, breaking it and leaving wires exposed. Aqualad charged at the thief, disarming him of the sticks as thief threw what looked like poorly made shurikens. Aqualad ran up to him to knock him out, only to be shocked by the wire, distracting him as the thief knocked him out. Kaldur lost some of his balance as he started heading backwards towards the edge of the roof, he was about to fall until the thief caught him by his shoulder strap and placed him on the floor.

Artemis drew her bow back ready as she looked around in the smoke, her vision blurry as she heard grunts and blows being thrown. All of a sudden she heard what sounded somewhat like her own voice scream out. "Okay this is not right." She said as she clutched her bow, the tension of the metal wires digging into her fingertips as she was ready to fire.

"WATCH OUT!" Aqualad's voice echoed. She did a full 360 as she aimed her bow, the thief jumped at her as she fired a freeze arrow at him as it hit his shoulder. He charged at her as he took her bow and rebreather, tossing it to the ground, fighting her until she got the upper hand, both of them near the edge of the roof, unable to see anything but each other as they traded blows. She spun kicked him as he tumbled to the floor. He swept her under her feet, knocking her out, but instead she tipped over the edge and began to fall.

"Damn." He jumped down.

...

 **Building below Rev-Tech, Washington**  
 **22:03 EST**

Artemis' eyes strained to open as she smelled something strong, waking her up as she groaned in pain, rubbing her head. She felt her head throbbing as she opened her eyes. She sat up from the cold ground, "Ugh, what happene-" She said as she saw the thief kneeling in front of her. He was holding a small metal flask in front of her face, definitely where the source of the strong smell was coming from.

"Relax Archer, you took quite the dive right there. Now, I'll make this quick since we might have little ti-"

She came to her senses as she rolled backwards, catching him off guard and kicking the thief in the jaw as she stood up, drawing her backup bow.

The thief jerked back as she kicked him in the jaw, tumbling backwards before standing up to find her aiming her crossbow at him. He slaps it from his face as it goes to the floor, Artemis and him going into fighting stance, throwing punches and few blows, trying to knock each other off, finally she gets the upper hand on him when he tosses a punch, diving under it and flipping him over, reaching to grab her bow.

He flips over, but rolls to regain his footing, seeing her grab her crossbow, pressing button on his palm as he stands up, she quickly turns to him, pointing the crossbow at the left of his face while he points his fist to the left of her face, both of them breathing lightly, ready to pull the trigger.

He chuckles slightly at her. "Not bad. Wanna play without the toys?" She narrows his eyes at him as her eyes go to his fist pointed to the side of her face, she smirks.

She smirks at him. "Like you'd be able to measure up?"

He cocks his head, looking over at his wrist. "You'd be surprised." Soon a red light starts slowly emitting from the top of his fist. There was heat lightly radiating and warming the side of her face, the red light shining in the corner of her eye from the top of his hand. She doesn't flinch.

"Wow, laser emitter I'm assuming? What are you some kind of infiltrator?"

She can hear him lightly laughing from underneath his stupid mask. "Heh, actually I prefer the term 'Insider', but to each their own."

"I'll ask you one time, unmask yourself and tell me who you are." She points the arrow closer to his cheek, the arrow touching the face plate of his mask.

"Ok." He says, using his free hand, reaching the bottom of his mask, ready to pull off. He chuckles. "One condition. Both of us, at the same time."

She narrows her eyes, scoffing, "Yeah, like you'd actually do it."

He chuckles. "Ghosts like me don't have anything to lose Blondie, so promises are all I can really keep, but if you're going to do something hurry it up, for everyone's sake. And if it's any consolation, this mask isn't arrow proof."

She looks at him, narrowing her eyes, her finger still on the trigger. She uses her free hand and reaches her mask; she looks at him as he does the same, pressing a small button on the button of his mask with his thumb. She hears a faint sound as he grasps the bottom part of the mask, about to pull it off. She's about to pull it off when she stops and it goes back. She can hear him smirk underneath as his mask clicks back.

"Thought so." He faces her as he rubs his jaw. He drops his hand, slightly chuckling as he fixes himself, Artemis still pointing the crossbow at him. "Wow, nice kick by the way. Saved me a trip to the doctor. Anyways, glad to see you're alright." He looks at her bow. "Wow, you use one of those too?" He gestures at her crossbow. "Small world." He chuckles. "Now, we should have enough time," he looks to his watch."-Back to the business before you interrupted me-"

"What happened? Who are you? Where is the rest of my team?!" Artemis said as she aimed her bow to his head. "Answer me!" He rubs his jaw, trying to speak. She rolls her eyes. "Don't be a baby. I didn't even hit you that hard. Now answer me." She said, her voice treading dangerously low.

He still says holding his jaw. "You're lucky you were only knocked out for a few seconds. You fell pretty high up Rapunzel, but I caught you."

"I'd thank you, if you weren't the one to have caused this to begin with!" She says, even still, slightly lowers her bow. "Why save me? You were trying to kill us!"

"No I wasn't. And yeah I know I caused your fall, sorry for knocking you off, wasn't my intention. Still, your team attacked me first. Look, I don't know who any of you are, but I can tell you that your all-star squadron's fine, they're actually upstairs, all knocked out actually." He points to the top of the Rev-tech building. "You guys all gave me a good fight. And you fought through the some really strong gas, so either I'm using cheap gas or you guys are something else."

"You still haven't answered my other question. Why?"

"I was trying to escape, you and your team tried to stop me. So I fought back, albeit at the cost of wasted ammo on all of you." He says as he tightens the bag strap on his shoulder. "Now as for your team, I wasn't trying to hurt any of you, they're all ok. Even the dude that ripped my shirt. Launched him off the roof, shock-absorbent foam, he should be fine gorgeous."

She rolls her eyes. "Don't call me that."

He shrugs. "Sorry, but anyways security's combing all the floors right now, you have..." He looks at his watch." about 196 seconds until they get to the roof. Should be enough time." He says as he picks up the flask off the floor, and hands it to her while she still points the bow at him. "Here, the gas was strong, should wake them up pretty quick." She takes it, narrowing her eyes. He backs away from her as he readies what looks like an arm grappling hook.

"Hey, where are you going?! You're under arrest!"

He steps on the edge of the roof. He grabs a grapple and attaches to his arm. "Clearly, I'm not." He turns to her. "Look, this was fun, but-"

She aims her bow. "You're not going anywhere."

He sighs, turning to her. His posture straightened and stiff as his voice becomes serious. "Look Blondie, I'm only going to say this once, you seem like decent person since you haven't actually shot me yet, and I'm not going to waste either of our time. This was great and all but you're not my top priority right now. There are bigger things going on here than any of you can understand. You're just getting in my way. Go and save your friends. I'm not the enemy, and you're just in my way. The world is more complex than you think, so now you can either try to arrest me but expose your team, and I will still escape, or you go and save them, either way I would pick the latter, always, because that's the only option. So now are you going to do something or what?" He says as he aims his grapple.

She arms her bow, gritting her teeth, her eyes looking up, because damn he's right. She drops her bow and activates the grapple setting. He nods approvingly, but not in a condescending way. "Nice meeting all of you. If we're both lucky, we probably won't ever see each other again. Good luck." He says as he swings away.

Artemis aims her bow at the top of the rev-tech building, grappling up as she lands on top of the roof. She quickly makes work and starts waking everyone up with the thief's flask. They all wake up pretty quickly; finally she gets to Miss Martian.

"M'gann, are you ok?" She says as she lifts her up while also pulling out her tracker. "Gotcha." She looks at the location of the tracer which she placed on him after she kicked him. He... wasn't moving. It was still on the same roof. "Damn."

Miss Martian: _"A-Artemis, I'm fine, the link's reestablished, are you ok?"_

Artemis: _"Yeah I'm fine. Everyone else sound off?"_

KF: _"That's smells strong; I don't think my nose is right. But I'm fine."_

Robin: _"I'm good."_

Z: _"I'm ok, a little groggy but I'll manage."_

Rocket: _"My head hurts but I'm fine."_

Aqualad: _"I'm alright."_

Conner: _"I'm good, just stuck right now."_

Miss Martian: _"We're all okay. Where are you Conner?"_

Conner: _"I'm at the building across you guys."_

Artemis: _"Alright, let's get out of here quick, I think I hear security coming."_ She says as the all get up leaving the building and heading to Conner.

Aqualad: _"What happened to the thief?"_

Artemis: _"After he took you out he knocked me off the roof accidentally, I woke up on the building below, we fought but he got away. I tried to stop him but I had to come back to get you before you guys were exposed."_

Aqualad: _"It is alright Artemis you did what you could."_

Kid Flash: _"Did he do something? If he did I swear I'll-"_

Artemis: _"He didn't do hurt me Wally. I'm fine babe. He actually saved me from falling. He gave me a flask that woke all you guys up."_

Kid Flash: _"Still doesn't excuse what he did to us."_

Robin: _"Did you at least put a tracer on him?"_

Artemis: _"I did, and he ditched it."_

Robin: _"Same here."_

Rocket: _"So what now?"_

Zatanna: _"Now we look for him."_

Artemis: _"He's probably long gone by now."_

Robin: _"That and the fact that he knows now that someone's watching probably means that he won't be stealing again anytime soon."_

Aqualad: _"The bigger question is what did he take, and why he saved me and you at all? There's more to this thief than we had expected. Until we gather more information about him, we cannot engage. I must report to Batman. Miss Martian, call the bioship. Artemis, Superboy, stay where you are, we'll pick you up. We're going home."_


	3. Insider

"Insider"

* * *

 **Hall of Justice, Washington D.C.**  
 **22:53 EST**

A tall brunette woman stepped out of the hall as she looked around; putting on her coat as she made sure no one was there. "Catherine Colbert, A-0-2, initiate security lockdown." She said as she typed in the code.

"*Recognized. Access granted, lockdown initiated. Security protocols activated.*" She walked to her car, stopping for a brief moment as she felt something move in the shadows. Waving off the suspicion as she drove off, the cold being less than endearing for her to handle.

The thief stepped out of the shadows, looking around as he searched through his backpack.

 _'The fortress of gods.'_ A grin grew on his face. _'Shouldn't be too hard.'_ His mask visor lit up. _'No heat signatures. Place is empty.'_ He placed a device on the door's keypad.

' _We'll see how long it takes this time.'_ The device started running the decryption codes, bypassing security, and then it blinked green. _'That should do it.'_ He narrowed his eyes, looking at his watch. _'Scans show that I can't use the decryption software to get in; the league would know I was here. I'll have to use voice recognition. What was that girl's name again? I just hope I don't mess up on the accent.'_

"*Voice authorization required.*"

He clears his throat. "Catherine Colbert, A-0-2."

"*Not recognized.*"

 _'Little too hoarse.'_

He cleared his throat and tried again.

"*Access granted.*"

 _'Nice, breaking into mount Olympus. Wait till Helena hears 'bout this. Now to get to the center of the hall where the computer is. After this I'll wipe the cams, and they'll never know I was here.'_ He walked in, the cold breeze encapsulating the atmosphere of the hall. He was stopped in his tracks. He stared at all the statues of the leaguers, their large gold plated figures all standing between him and the computer. He waved off the thought as he walked to the huge doors to the center of the hall. He looked around. _'Huh, there's no keypad. Guess it must run off voice recognition.'_

"Catherine Colbert A-0-2."

"*Recognized. Clearance level not accepted.*"

"Override, Catherine Colbert A-0-2."

"*Clearance level not accepted. Try again.*"

 _'Figures. Guess she wasn't high enough clearance to be allowed."_ He ran a hand through his hair. _"Great. Now, where's that League induction video from last December?'_ He pulled out his phone. He watched as Superman started introducing the new League members Icon, Atom, Plastic man, and Doctor Fate. He replayed the video a few times.

"Superman."

"*Voice not recognized, designation required.*"

 _'WOW. Really? Superman? I'm an actual idiot. Come on E, think, there's no way it would just be his name.'_ He seethed. _'What is his designation? Think.'_

"Superman, A-0-1."

"*Voice not recognized, designation error.*"

 _'Does Superman have an accent?'_ He plays the video again, listening intently. _'Slight accent, okay. Think I can manage that.'_

"Superman, A-0-1."

"*Voice recognized, designation error.*"

 _'Idiot. The A must stand for access or something like that. Colbert is probably an authorized-only member. So think. Designations must be based on induction into the League. Think.'_ He took a few steps back and stared at the statues again, tapping his foot. He narrowed his eyes as he focused on Superman, who stood in the center of all the statues. He smacked his head at the realization, a smile growing on his face.

"Superman, 0-1."

"Access granted, welcome superman."

 _'Yes!'_

"What are you doing here?"

 _'Crap.'_

A metallic voice started coming from the end of the hall. Footsteps followed, and it was getting louder as it approached him.

He turned around to see Red Tornado, _the_ Red Tornado, the powerhouse— well, one of the powerhouses— of the League, standing just a few feet away from him. They both stood still. "I will not ask again. What are you doing here? Surrender now." Tornado declared as he raised his hand. The thief stood his ground as he reached for something from his backpack. Red Tornado's eyes flashed red as he flew up, sucking all the air from the Hall. The thief fell to the ground as his vision went to black.

* * *

 **Bioship over Washington**  
 **22:37 EST**

The team took their seats as the bio-ship started lifting off, everyone making sure that no one was hurt as they all finished checking each other for injuries. Everyone turned to Robin who was typing on his computer.

"Anything?" Kid Flash asked the boy wonder.

Robin sighed, annoyed. "I grabbed all the footage from Rev-Tech, there should be no trace of us there. As for the thief, I'm trying to see if he was caught on any cams in the city. Though, from the looks of it, he placed all them on a loop."

"So we've got nothing." Conner grumbled. He crossed his arms, still mad about the whole incident. Robin shrugged.

Megan rubbed her head as she switched the bioship to auto-pilot control. "Are you alright?" Rocket asked.

"I'm fine," she gave a half smile. "My head just hurts. Are you okay Rocket?"

Rocket rubs her head lightly, "I'm good. It's just a nasty bump to the head. It happens." She turned to the rest of the Team. "What I'm more worried about is you guys. It was my fault, the guy flash-banged me. If I hadn't let that happen—"

Aqualad stood up and placed a comforting hand on her shoulder. "It wasn't your fault. Clearly we all underestimated our opponent tonight."

"But he did cheat though, smoking up the place and gassing us. I doubt any of us could get a clear view of him." Kid Flash said.

"Which begs the question," Artemis adds. "Who exactly was this guy?"

"More importantly, what exactly did he steal?" Zatanna continued.

"I'll run his image on the watchtower's computer from the feed we pulled from Rev-Tech and see if anything comes up." Robin started sifting through the footage. "Rev-tech security cams have him breaking into to the data vault."

"So he stole Intel? What exactly is he doing? Corporate espionage?" Kid Flash asked.

"Maybe. Cameras have him entering the data vault an hour before he met up with us. Although it seems like he wiped all the footage on how he got in."

"Which means whatever he took must have been big."

"What exactly is Rev-Tech?" Miss Martian asked.

Robin turned to Miss Martian as a holo-screen popped up on the bioship's glass. "Rev-Tech's a personal think tank. It started up a few years ago or so ago in Blüdhaven and has been trying to expand across the country. The company has had multiple dealings in the community and the military. Their most notable project right now is some kind of clean-energy device. They've got a clean record, no signs of criminal affiliation or activity. That's all it says."

"We need to find this guy, fast. Whatever secrets Rev-tech has cannot fall into the wrong hands." Rocket said.

Zatanna turned to Artemis and Kaldur, who looked like they were deep in thought. "Kal? Artemis? You guys okay?"

"Perhaps it is best to keep an open mind on this situation." Aqualad said.

"Kaldur's right. Something just doesn't feel right about this." Artemis said.

"What do you mean? He attacked us." Rocket asked, confused.

"Except after the attack he could have easily killed us or taken us, but he didn't. And during the attack he saved me and Artemis from falling off the roof." Aqualad said as he and Artemis turned to the team, all confused.

"He did? I didn't know you guys almost fell." Kid Flash said, with a slight worry in his voice as his eyes went over to Artemis.

"We were both knocked off." Aqualad continues, stroking his chin. "He grabbed me before I tipped over the ledge."

"And he saved me after I fell off the roof." Artemis adds.

"But he still attacked us." Rocket asked in confusion.

"And he told us that we were in his way." KF said.

"Why would he just attack us, and then save you two from falling? This guy, from looks of it, is a criminal." Conner said. "And from the looks of it tonight could have been a possible lead to what we've actually been looking for, Vandal and his Light. If anything this guy is getting in our way."

Aqualad furrows his brows, "Circumstances aside, I suggest we just keep an open mind. Perhaps there is more to this than we are seeing. We need answers."

"He's right; we have to find this guy." Kid Flash said, turning to Robin who was on his computer. "Any leads Rob?"

"None." He said as he shut off his computer. "The watchtower will continue running a trace and try and find a match to this thief, the mask itself looks distinctive enough. But unless we get a full facial recognition, we've got nothing to cross reference except the Rev-Tech footage."

"So what now? Do we just head home?" Artemis says as everyone turns to Aqualad. Before he had time to speak, a loud beep comes from Robin's computer.

"Incoming message from RT." Robin says as Red Tornado appeared on the screen of the ship.

"*Team, report to the Hall, now.*"

* * *

 **Hall of Justice**  
 **23:24 EST**

They gathered into the Hall to see Red Tornado waiting for them.

"What happened?" Miss Martian asked.

"A break-in." Red Tornado responded promptly as Robin went over to the computer.

"Here? At the hall? No one that's dumb to break in here, it's impossible, we'd be alerted about it." Kid Flash looked at Robin.

"But he was able to get past all the first level security protocols. He would have gotten into the core of the hall had I not prevented him."

Aqualad turns to Tornado. "Why exactly were you here?"

"I had detected several instances where an individual had attempted to break into the hall a few days prior. And had waited constantly for the intruder to come, which is why you have not seen me at the cave for a while."

"So where's this guy now?" Superboy looked around.

"Downstairs in the interrogation room. Follow me."

"We have an interrogation room?" Rocket looked at Zatanna, surprised.

"I'm just as surprised as you are." Zatanna shrugged.

...

The intruder was sitting down; still masked, his hands handcuffed behind the chair, hunched over and knocked out. They all gathered in front of the window. Robin started studying him, something looked off.

Conner narrowed his eyes at the burglar. He was wearing a mask, black jeans with black elbow and knee pads, black combat boots, and a navy blue tactical jacket with black gloves. He looked closer as he noticed a large tear on the side of the intruder's jacket. "That's him. I tore his jacket in the fight at Rev-tech."

"So much for looking around the city." KF breathes a sigh of relief. "Saves us the trouble right?"

"This is too much of a coincidence." Aqualad stroked his chin.

"Now we can get some answers." Artemis said.

"I will return to the Watchtower and inform Batman of our intruder. I have disarmed him of all his gear. His belongings are upstairs; I will leave you to it." Red Tornado nods as he leaves.

Kid Flash strokes his chin. "So, 2 encounters in one night, what are the odds?"'

"Let's find out." Zatanna turns to Miss Martian, gesturing to the thief. "M'gann, can you?"

"Right, right." Her eyes started to glow before Robin stopped her.

"Hold up Megs," Robin said as he narrowed his eyes. "I don't think you'll have to do that. I'm betting he's willing to give the answers to us. He knows there is no way out of this."

"What? How can you be sure?" Kid Flash said as he looked at the thief.

"You guys seeing what I'm seeing?" Robin pointed at the guy, who looked like he was trying not to move. "Because from the looks of it he picked his cuffs a while ago." Robin narrowed his eyes. "He's awake, just playing us. Or well, he at least thinks he is."

Everyone nodded in agreement. "You guys go check out his gear. Artemis, Aqualad, and I will go talk to him."

"We'll see if we can find out what he stole." Kid Flash stated. Everyone nodded in agreement as they both split up. Kid Flash, Rocket, Zatanna, Miss Martian and Superboy all went upstairs where Red Tornado had placed all his gear. Kid Flash picked up his backpack and dumped all his stuff on the table. "Check this out."

"Not very organized is he?" Zatanna says, looking at all the dumped stuff on the table.

"No doubt. Look at this." He picks up the some of the stuff. "Poorly made metal circle shurikens, a few gas and smoke grenades, a couple of pellets, a few small canisters, two wrist-mounted grapples, three electric bolas, two USB drives, a couple of granola bars, an energy drink, a drawing pad, a mini wrist laser emitter and whoa, what's this?" He picks up a phone shaped device. "Some kind of hacking device?" The device itself was old, but then he started opening up slowly, the tech started to look more sophisticated. "Wow, the device uses an old phone shell, but the tech inside's been modified."

Conner looked at the device. "That's probably how he got in."

"There's no way he could have used that." Rocket added.

Kid Flash examined the device. "From the looks of it, not likely. He probably used it to hack the keypad's mainframe. More importantly, even if he did use this to get past the keypad, how did he get past the voice recognition? The hall's security systems are designed to be locked in with voice recognition as the first layer of security. It would have asked for a voice confirmation. There's no way he could have gotten in with this. And if he did use this then the whole League would've been alerted. So the question is how he did get in?"

Zatanna picks up one of the drives. "The bigger question is: why?"

...

Aqualad, Artemis, and Robin all stood in front of thief, who was hunched over pretending to be cuffed behind the chair. Robin went behind the thief, and placed another set of handcuffs on him as he re-tightened the other one. They all looked at each other as Aqualad crossed his arms, shrugging.

Artemis walked in front of him, before stopping and going behind him grabbing his glove, using it to disable the lock on his mask, finally removing it "Alright, you can stop playing dead." Artemis said.

The thief sighed as he sat up straight. His face revealed. He was a teenager. He looked about the same age as they did. He had long, messy dark brown hair which draped over his forehead and brown eyes with a slightly tanned complexion. "Busted, huh?" He said in a slight gruff voice as he jiggled his cuffs. "Bummer. Now can I have my mask back? My vision's terrible."

"Don't joke." Artemis crosses her arms.

"I'm serious blondie. I can't see." They all glared at him. " _Fine._ Give me a second." He squinted for a moment, then started blinking rapidly, watering his eyes. After a minute he finally stopped. "That's better." He looked at Artemis. "Wow, nice seeing you again. We have got to stop meeting like this."

"Feeling's not mutual." Artemis said.

"Ouch." He said in a mocking playful tone. "Yeesh. You know, you remind me of one of my friends, she's got a temper, and she's good with a crossbow."

They ignored his statements. "We have questions. Who are you? Why are you here?"

"Guys, I'm just a thief, and to you, nothing more, nothing less. Though I could ask you the same thing as to why you're here." He turns to Robin and Aqualad, both looked confused. "Why are you guys here in D.C. at all?" He turned to Robin. "The drive must have been long from Gotham boy wonder. Shouldn't you be with Batman?" He turned to Aqualad. "And shouldn't you be, I dunno, _underwater_ , defending the ocean? Last time any of you guys were in D.C. was 7 months ago, seems a bit overkill to send Batman and Aquaman's partners to be come all the way out here in the cold for a petty thief like me. So either they were off duty or you guys seem to have your own little KND unit going on. That's also including the people behind the glass." He says as he turns to the glass, where the rest of the team was looking at him, KF narrowed his eyes as the other looked back at the room.

"That's none of your business." Robin said, narrowing the white slits of his mask. "A better question would be is how did you get past the Hall's security?"

"It's probably the same way he tricked us on the roof top." Artemis turned to him. "You have a voice modulator."

He grins, chuckling. "Not quite actually." He says, his tone changing slowly, "After all, a voice changer's too much work." He said in Artemis' voice. Everyone looked at him surprised. "And a voice changer is not the same as the real deal; you could easily have caught me. Besides," He switched to Aqualad, "it's all about finding the perfect pitch." He clears his throat. He switched to Robin's voice. "Which is kinda hard sometimes." He looks at all of them, smirking. "Gosh golly guys, you seemed surprised." He said mockingly in a higher pitch of Robin's voice. He switched to Superman's voice, "In my line of work, it pays to have a good set of skills, I happen to excel in this one."

They all looked at each other, confused. "You're a real impressionist, but we're not amused." Artemis says her sarcasm seething.

"I try my best. It's actually perfect muscle control." He shrugged with a grin. "Well, not total control, but I've got a pretty good ear. The best part is the prank calls. It's hilarious." He chuckles. They're not amused. "Wow, tough crowd. Expected you guys to be more smiles and talkative. Guess they were right, never meet the heroes."

"Enough," Aqualad glared, "Who are you? Why are you here and what did you steal from Rev-tech?"

The thief narrowed his eyes. "Like I'd tell you. 'Sides, that's kinda the point of the mask."

"You're tied down to a chair and you have nowhere to go. You don't have a lot of options." Robin said smirking as he opened up his holo-computer.

"Besides, we could easily just let Miss Martian probe your mind and find out what you know." Artemis adds.

The thief looked at them, slightly confused. "Okay, first, that's slightly true. And second, what the heck is a Miss Martian? Is she Manhunter's partner or something? I've never heard of her. And last, why not just do it anyways? Like you said, I'm all I'm tied down and have nowhere to go. What's stopping you? "

"We noticed you picked you cuffs a few minutes ago. You could have easily left, but didn't." Robin said.

"That doesn't mean anything. Maybe I just wanted to meet the Justice League."

"It's also because you saved both of us from falling." Aqualad crossed his arms.

He arches his brow. "I only saved both of you because you both could have died, and I wasn't trying to hurt anybody at all. You guys were just in my way."

"So why attack us?" Robin said as he turned off his computer.

"Because you attacked me." Robin looked at him confused. "I was trying to get away; you guys were trying to capture me."

She looked at him to make sure he wasn't joking. "Uh, yeah, it's kind of our job to catch the bad guys."

"Except I'm not the bad guy. Believe it or not, you and I, we're alike. We just have erm- _different_ approaches to the cause." He shrugs. They look to him unconvinced. He huffs, his composure and his facial expression changing to serious demeanor. He huffs a little as he bites his lip, thinking about what he actually wants to say. They look to him as he speaks.

"Look, I know you guys are doing your job, I do. Truth is I'm doing mine too. I'm not sure you understand, maybe the boy wonder and robin hood here do, but the world's a more complicated and messy place than you think. Do you ever wonder where those anonymous tips come from? Where the random leads and evidence show up for cops and agencies to use? There are people out there in the world who know what's wrong with it and are trying to help make it better because they can. I'm one of those people. I'm just trying to make my world a better place, I'm not asking you to believe me, and frankly don't care if you do. All that matters is I'm doing something, unlike the many people in the world who cause crime and pain just because they can."

Robin, Aqualad, and Artemis all look at each other, their shoulders slightly dropping, the tension in the room slightly dissipating. "So you're some kind of hero? Never heard of you." Artemis said.

"Never heard of me?" He cracks a small smile. "That's the highest praise I've ever gotten, I'm flattered, that must mean I'm doing my job then. And I'm not a hero. More like a freelancer. Technically agent, whichever works for what I'm doing."

"What do mean 'what you're doing?'" Robin says, quietly scanning his face. "What exactly are you trying to do?"

"Okay, let's say we do believe you. Why steal from Rev-tech? Why are you here?" Aqualad asks.

"You wouldn't believe me if I told you."

"Try us." Aqualad said.

"Alright," He looks at them with a straight face. "My name is Agent X. I'm trying to take down a secret organization of villains that are planning to take over the world and who knows what. They've used multiple unrelated criminals from around the globe and they've got their pockets in nearly everything, their organization and influence runs so deep that even you and the Justice League probably don't even know about it."

They all looked at each other, surprised as they all stared at him.

"Told you guys wouldn't believe me." He huffed. They all looked at each other with concerned looks as they looked back at him. He arched an eyebrow. "Umm, what?"

...

"*Recognized: Batman 0-2.*" The computer said as Batman walked into the Hall. The rest of the team was waiting for him as he saw Robin, Aqualad, and Artemis watching over the thief as he typed on the hall's computer.

Robin turned to Batman. "Where were you?"

"I was investigating a lead on a theft in Gotham City."

Robin nodded. "There's something you might want to see."

The thief turned to Aqualad. "You don't happen to have a light switch on this computer right?" Aqualad doesn't respond. "Kidding. Woah, is that really the Batman?" Aqualad still didn't reply. "Okay, sorry. I'm ready."

Aqualad, Artemis, and Robin walked up to the team and Batman. The thief slipped something under the computer, none of them noticing. Everyone all turned to the computer, waiting and watching the thief as he worked on the computer.

"Robin, what is this?" Batman asked as he narrowed his eyes.

"I don't know, he said he needed to use the Hall's computer to decrypt some of the Intel he stole." Robin said.

"Is he the thief from the Rev-tech robberies?"

"Yes."

"Miss Martian, link us all up." Aqualad said quietly.

Miss Martian: _"Everyone here?"_

Everyone: _"Yes."_

Robin: _"Batman?"_

Batman: _"I'm here."_

Miss Martian: _"This will allows us to talk about this in private."_

Batman: _"What exactly is he doing?"_

Robin: _"Guess we're going to find out."_

"Alright, show us what you've got." Robin said as the thief turned back to the computer. The screen started filling itself with images of multiple companies including Cadmus, Rev-Tech subsidiaries, Luthor Corp facilities, Kord Industries, STAR Labs, Stagg enterprises, Genetech, and Amertek Industrial. The screen also filled up with a picture of Queen Perdita, shipping manifests from Santa Prisca, a news feed of the Injustice League, a map pointing to North and South Rhelasia, a picture of Corto Maltese, another picture of a dock shipment in Metropolis, pictures of all 4 ice villains attack on the 4th of July from last year, and lastly pictures of Cheshire, Sportsmaster, Black Spider, Hook, Bane, and Shimmer.

"7 months ago on the 4th of July, 4 ice villains had staged multiple simultaneous attacks at 4 different locations across the US. In that time, enemies had sent espionage criminals to commit several robberies on multiple companies in this time, but since the Justice League stopped the ice-villains early, they had ceased all operations. Still, they got enough Intel from a lot of the companies, ranging from Wayne Tech to military facilities. One of the companies not attacked was-"

Batman narrowed his eyes at the mention of Wayne Tech.

"Luthor Corp." Superboy said.

"Luthor Corp has ties to this organization. After the order was called off, multiple leaguers had responded to an incident at a Cadmus lab in D.C., in that time another set of robberies had taken place at multiple shipping locations across the US. Afterwards they had kidnapped a scientist named Dr. Serling Roquette, a nanorobotics and claytronics expert. They forced her to create something to infiltrate these companies. She was never heard from again for a few weeks. That is, until August 8th. Reports on the criminal interwebs that a STAR Labs facility was attacked and destroyed with no trace. In that same night, there was a reported attack on a Wayne Tech facility. Then she had reappeared, unscathed and back at Royalton University in Star City."

"What exactly do you have to do with this?" Rocket asked.

"Ever since then some companies have hired me and I've been trying to steal back the data they stole, albeit with minor successes and double crosses." He shrugs.

"Where exactly does Rev-tech fit with all of this?" Kid Flash asked.

"Rev-tech has been rumored to be involved in some shady deals, and although nothing could be proven, I had to be sure. I had intercepted a job that wanted Intel from Rev-Tech, and should I deliver it to them, I would have been able to at least get a lead on my suspicions. Still, trying to gain access and infiltrate into the network of operatives has been proven difficult, actually next to impossible. The chain is incredibly exclusive. The Rev-tech job would have been my shot in."

"How exactly do you know about the secret organization of super villains?" Miss Martian asked.

He stammered for a moment, before regaining his cool. "Um-well do you guys remember the time when the world had just kids?"

"How could I forget?" Zatanna murmured, trying to fight the back the thought of that day with her dad. Robin noticed as he placed a comforting hand on her shoulder.

"We remember." Batman interjected.

The thief continued. "At that time simultaneous robberies were committed, a most interesting robbery was at a STAR labs facility. The operatives Sportsmaster and the Riddler had stolen tech from a facility in Gotham City. An echinoderm that was transported from Atlantis. A few months later on December 30th, multiple criminals and felons were informed by an anonymous tip that the Justice League would be indisposed. No one knows how or why, but they didn't care. They started robbing a bunch of discrete locations, mainly shipping ports, loading facilities and factories. Local law enforcement and other superheroes had stopped other incidences, but a lot of others couldn't be accounted for. On January 1st, a call was placed to alert all the criminals to cease all operations and activities."

"Are you anywhere close to identifying the people in this organization?" Robin said as he looked over to Kid Flash, who watched as Artemis looked at the pictures of Sportsmaster and Cheshire.

"No, the organization's members are only known to a select few and can't be tracked anywhere. I thought I would be able decrypt all the data I had taken over time and find a link with the Hall's computer, seeing as it's one of the most powerful computers on the planet and stores all the data on every documented league missions and secrets you guys have uncovered, probably dating all the way back the time of the Justice Society of America. Intel like this is hard to come by, even harder to decrypt."

Everyone all turned to each other. The thief was facing away from the computer as he pressed a device under it, away from their gaze.

Zatanna: _"So what do we think?"_

Batman: _"Most of this Intel matches up with some of your missions from last year."_

Rocket: _"And the starro tech he was talking about, exactly what we fought against just a few days ago."_

Superboy: _"Think he's telling the truth?"_

Kid Flash: _"Sounds like it. Or it could be that all the Intel is from stuff the light might have supplied him from last year. We don't want another mole within the team."_

Artemis: _"So what now?"_

Aqualad: _"We still need to confirm his story."_

Robin: _"We need to found out more of what he knows."_

Miss Martian: _"Me and Uncle J'onn can go through his mind and found out what else he knows, with his permission of course."_

Robin: _"I'll try and decode the data on the computer."_

Batman: _"Until then we keep him here."_

Rocket: _"Why not the mountain?"_

Robin: _"Best to keep everything at arm's length, we still don't exactly know who this guy is. I tried to run a facial rec when we interrogated him, but nothing's come up."_

Aqualad: _"Agreed. We will keep him here. Until we can confirm what he is saying is true. Until then, as we all suspect, his information, while some accurate, is too much for a common thief."_

Kid Flash: _"What are you saying?"_

Aqualad: _"That we need to be cautious and to formulate a contingency."_

Robin: _"I might have an idea."_

The lights started flickering and finally shut off. For a few moments they all looked around as they tried to find the thief. Batman tossed a batarang in the dark, scratching him before he left.

"Nrut no eht sthgil!" Zatanna said as the lights flickered on, they all turned around and looked, the thief was gone.

"Everyone okay?" Batman asked. Everyone all nodded in confirmation. "That was a miniature EMP."

"Don't worry, he couldn't have gotten far." Kid Flash said as he started running around the hall, and then ran outside.

Superboy narrowed his eyes as he looked around the area. "He's not showing up on infrared." He shook he head. "We should've seen it coming." Superboy said as he clenched his fist. Everyone all nodded, as they all turned to Robin who ran to the computer and turned it on; he noticed the flash drive was still there.

"Did he take anything?" Rocket asked.

"No, the computer has safety protocols so that no one could steal anything from the computer." He turned to the USB ports. "I guess he didn't leave with anything."

Kid Flash zoomed back. "I checked the whole perimeter. He's gone." He huffed. "Now what?"

"It looks like the only thing he left with was the data he decrypted from us, just a bunch of shipping manifests, but it was probably enough for him." Robin said. "Still think he was telling the truth?"

Batman grabbed the batarang off the floor, with a slight blood stain on the tip. Batman narrowed his eyes. "Perhaps, but not the whole truth." Everyone turned to Batman. "Robin, send all the data to the Batcomputer. We'll decrypt it from there. In the meantime, all of you get some rest. We'll see if we have anything tomorrow."

* * *

 **Mount Justice**  
 **January 9, 09:29 EST**

They were all waiting in the Cave, sitting on the couch as they all listened to the T.V. in the background. Batman all told them to wait here until he had a viable lead. Apparently Rev-tech was hit again last night, except it wasn't the thief, it was another guy. Rev-tech was prepared and arrested the guy. The thief had been telling the truth from last night, so far.

Suddenly M'gann taps her head. "Hello M'gann! Knew I forgot something." Everyone all turned her. "One of our friends, Mal invited us to hang out at the Happy Harbor Bowl-o-Rama this Thursday. Are you guys free?"

"Sure, I'm down." Wally said as he stood up off the stretching. "Gives me time to practice my skills." He turned to Artemis and Robin, who were trying not to snicker. "You guys better not be betting on me again."

Robin and Artemis raised their hands innocently. "Relax Walls," Robin said, fighting off a grin. "We're not betting on you this time. We just betting on who'd beat you is all."

"I'm sure I can beat him." Artemis said as she placed a hand on her hips. "Besides, a little competition never hurt anyone. Are you game Rob?"

"Totally." Robin smirked.

"This is so not fair!" Wally groaned.

"What's the matter Wally? Afraid of a little friendly competition?" Zatanna said.

"I'm game." Conner shrugged. "Friendly competition right?" He smirked as he patted a sleeping Wolf.

"Should be an interesting night." Raquel said as she smirked.

"So that's a yes? Everyone's going?" Everyone all nodded in agreement. M'gann smiled. "Yay, I'll be sure to tell them."

"*Recognized Batman, 0-2.*"

"He's here." Aqualad said as the team all walked to the computer where Batman was waiting. "Did you find anything?"

"Not a lot of data was recovered from the Agent's drive. What the computer was able to find was a decrypted list of shipping manifests near Washington D.C., a warehouse off of National Harbor in Washington. This corresponds with some of the information we've been getting of an exchange in D.C. and reports of a power surge and rerouting into the area."

"That's probably why he needed the hall's computer, the manifest was heavily encrypted." Robin said as he examined the file.

"Has the Watchtower identified this guy yet?" Wally asked.

"The Watchtower has crossed-referenced his face across Interpol, FBI, CIA, and NSA databases and have found nothing. This thief has no previous records or background. His mask and uniform however is another story." Batman started typing on the computer as multiple images and small videos started pulling up. Some were blurred images and others were videos of him fighting. "Based on the data Robin gave us, the Watchtower was able to find and link him with incidents possibly involving him. Not all of this is accurate, however." The footage showed him attacking a mob boss facility with a woman wearing dark purple with a crossbow. Another incident showed him at Alva industries, on top of a truck and attempting to stop it, crashing it into the river. Everyone all looked at the footage, examining it.

"So he's some kind of agent?" Kid Flash asked.

"That's what he said, and judging by his combat skill shows a sense of military training." Robin stated.

"More like a soldier of fortune." Artemis corrected. She stared at the footage. "He's got some moves, but he's sloppy. I've never heard of him until now."

"This guy's just a teenager. No older than us. How is able to do stuff like this, to be involved in stuff like this?" Zatanna asked.

"So did you find anything else Batman? What about the blood sample you took?" Miss Martian asked.

"We found that he's had multiple encounters with a lot of the criminal underworld and has had interactions with a lot of the operatives all across the globe. He's also been linked with attacks in corporate espionage and criminal intelligence. Whether or not it was to stop the thefts or do it for his personal gain is unclear. The farthest that the Watchtower can trace all of this footage was 2 years ago, near Blüdhaven. I have sent Green Arrow and Black Canary on the case and will meet up with them shortly. As for the blood sample, the tests have yielded no results so far."

"So do you guys think can we trust what this guy's said?" Raquel asked.

"It did seem pretty suspicious for him to leave his Intel with us. Do you think he planted some kind of virus or something?"

"Both the League and the Batcave's computer have sifted through all the data on his drive, and have not found any forms of a virus or any third party signals. It seems this thief had left the drive for us. For the moment we'll be looking into the Intel this 'Agent X' has given us last night, but for now we must focus our attention on the warehouse. Your mission is to recon and observe the trade and identify who the buyers are. Everyone, suit up and deploy. Your mission is to find out what they are shipping. I trust you know what to do?"

"We do. We are on our way." Aqualad said as they all went to leave.

* * *

 **Some Building in the D.C.  
17:08 EST**

"Joey, I want those boxes stacked and ready for shipment right now. Check the containers and let's get a move on, yesterday please!" The grizzled man shouted, clapping in the dimly lit building basement at his nephew, who looked no older than 14, followed the other workers, checking the boxes and tossing them in the truck. The man walks to his nephew, opening the box and checking it. "Look at all that moolah Joey, it may be some defunct parts but it's exactly what Intergang needs. They would be pleased that we're ahead of schedule for shipping this crap and I can prove myself again."

"Yeah I got that. But Uncle Paul, do you think this is a good idea right now? I mean going in blind and shipping these is one thing, I mean, I want to help you but not like this-"

He shoves the kid against the box, "What do know kid? This," He gestures around the basement, "What we're doing right now is a lock. So get your ass moving, who's the one looking out for you? Just follow my lead and we'll be fine. Now get back to work." He says as everyone starts to move faster.

"Wow." A voice in the rafters calls out.

"What the hell is that?" He says as he signals his men, all pulling out their guns, aiming at the ceiling. Joey hides in back. "Call in the big guy."

"That sounds like a really solid plan you got there. Mind If I put a roadblock in that?"

"Show yourself!"

"Yeah like I'd actually do that. You guys really have no idea how this works do you?" He says, shifting to different location. "How 'bout you guys surrender before I have to take you all down. I've had a really long night and let's just say you'll have a longer one if you don't give up. Let's makes this all easy on everyone."

"Clearly you don't know how this works. That's a fat chance of happening asswipe!"

The room goes quiet as everyone starts gripping their guns. The frantically look up at the ceiling trying to find the intruder before finally hearing voice. "Then we're done talking."

The lights go out, a small hiss of smoke engulfs the room as everyone begins to scramble, shooting randomly. Soon punches are being thrown as the thugs' bodies hit the floor. Paul begins to panic nervously as he hears small footsteps near him. As the patters increase he begins shooting around, until he runs out of ammo. One ceiling light turns back on Paul as turns around to see Agent X. "Well, I showed myself. And ya missed. Now I got you." He says pointing his arm at him.

He drops the gun, raising his hands, before grinning as he sees another silhouette in the shadows. "You sure you got us, guess that's a matter of perspective."

Agent X soon feels two huge arms come from behind him. He feels his body being crushed by the large man. Paul runs behind the crate watching as the thief grips his hands on thug's large forearms, trying to hold the crushing force. "Any last words little man?"

The thief tries to speak, but he hears a little crack and he whimpers in pain, trying his best to fight against the force. "AGHH!"

"Easy, this will be over quick." The Agent struggles as he looks around seeing nothing but crates and lights. He looks up at the ceiling light, aiming his best at the light as shoots his grappling hook, barely clamping on it as he pulls it down. It falls and the thug hunches over, still maintaining his grip as it falls on his back, shatter but it doesn't knock the thug out. The thug chuckles. Increasing his hold. "Fool, that wasn't going to work."

The thief takes advantage of the hunched over thug, using his other grappling hook to hook onto the crate, retracting the wire as the container goes full force at the thug's head, the pain enough to release the grip just enough for him to slip out. Agent X tries to sweep his feet below him to no avail. The thug picks him up and lifts him up, about to break his body. Agent X pulls a putty grenade out of his belt and shoves it to the front of his face, exploding and engulfing the huge thug's face. The thug drops him as he starts choking, gasping for air. The Thief slowly got up groaning, staring at the man. He was grasping for air as Agent X watched, waiting. The thug tries to fight and grips the putty trying to break open a hole for air. Finally he gives, dropping to the floor.

Agent X pulls out a spray, spraying hardening foam around the thugs' legs and arms to the floor. He pulled out another small capsule placing on his face, the foam started to dissipate. The thug took a big gasp of air as Agent X dropped another capsule next to his nose, knockout gas coming out as he took the big gasp.

Agent X turned to Paul, who tried to run away. He jumped after him and knocked him out. He turned to Joey, who looked like he fainted. The thief began dragging him, slightly wincing from the pain from the thug and placed him next to his uncle. He placed both of Paul's hands together behind his back, as if he was tying him up, and sprayed the foam around his wrists, making them like makeshift handcuffs. He did the same to Joey and then started walking around and doing the same to all the thugs.

He soon walked up to Paul and Joey, who were placed against the crates. He pulled out smelling salts from his pouch, placing it to their faces. They jerked awake.

"Whatdehell?" He says coming to his senses. He feels his hands behind him, cuffed but it felt like hard rock, and he couldn't break free. As he tried he saw only a shadow walk to him.

"Don't bother. It's incredibly high-density poly-urethane foam. That thing won't dissolve for a while. Incredibly hard get out of and to make, and even harder to get ingredients for. Now I've wasted too much time already dealing with and tying up all your goons so I'm going to cut it. Out of the other warehouses I've been yours has the latest activity, I want answers and you've got them."

"What makes you think I've got 'em?"

"You're Paul Marquez, used to be decently high up in Intergang until you were busted. Now you're trying to climb up again."

He scoffs. "You're wrong. I'm on Parole, I haven't done nothing wrong."

He runs a hand through his hair. "I literally just saw you open crates full of tech."

"Defunct tech." He corrects. "Why is the mafia after us now?"

"I'm not mafia."

"You're accent sounds otherwise."

He huffs, "I don't have time for this." He grabs his shirt, lifting him up. "Where is the drop-off taking place?"

He huffs. "I ain't telling you nothing. You may act all mighty but you ain't Batman with your blue Pj's. You're nothing more than some idiot with no rep."

The Agent chuckles lowly. Fear seeps a little into Paul as the thief pulls him closer to his mask, the reflective visor making Paul look at his own face. His voice goes low. "You're right. Batman would probably do something like hand you over to the police. Make sure you're safe and sound. But me, well you've never heard of me, and like you said, I don't have a rep, so-" The thief lifts his hand, the laser emitter popping out of his glove, glowing a bright hot red to Paul's face, ready to fire. "-Want to help me build one?"

"We don't know!" X and Paul turn to Joey, still pointing the emitter to Paul's face.

"Joey, shut the hell u-"

"We would be getting text once we texted that we loaded everything! But we don't know the location, whatever is happening is way above what my uncle knows. Just please don't hurt him anymore." He says. The fear in his eyes evident as he looks at Agent X. Agent X turns to Paul, who tries his best not to break his facade. He drops his hand, the emitter humming down as he reaches into Paul's jacket pocket. Pulling out a phone.

"Password?"

"I ain't telling you-"

"Wasn't talking to you." The thief turns to Joey.

"1762." Joey sighs.

"Joey, if we ever get out of this I'll beat your ass to-uh." He says before passing out from the gas that Agent X was holding to his nose.

"Sorry, you had to see that kid." He says standing up, pulling something out of his pocket and going behind him, placing a very small canister in his hand.

"Wait, what is-" The kid turned to the thief as he felt the small canister in his hand. The thief knelt down in front of him, his head level with Joey's.

"It's a choice. It's a small canister, my last one actually. Made it to dissolve the foam that's currently binding you. But it's only got a few drops left to dissolve just one set of cuffs. The police are going to come soon. And belief me when I say this, I know a runaway when I see one, and you may think that the foster care sucks, but you deserve better than your current situation right now. They're a foster kid shelter in the city, open all day. Now you can save your uncle or you can save yourself. I suggest you do the latter. You don't deserve to be with people like this. You seem like a decent kid. You've just had bad luck. Now make what you believe the right choice is for you." The thief stands up, grabbing the phone as he places it next his phone to decrypt it. He walks over to one of the crates, taking a few small things before fixing his bag and heading out.

"Wait!" Joey says. The thief turns to look back as he stares at him. 'Why? Why are you doing this? Why are you helping me?"

The Thief looks like he ponders for a moment. He turns his gaze back to him. He shrugs. "Why not?" He says as he walks into the shadows disappearing as the kid ponders his choice.

 **Outside the building  
18:20 EST**

The thief exits the building before grunting and laying against the wall. Sliding down the wall as he seethes in pain, stretching his arm as he hears a crack and it snaps back into place. He cracks his neck a bit, relishing in the small relief from the pain of being crunched by a thug who has way too much down time on his hands. He looks around to see if there are any scratches, until he sees a little cut on his leg. It's probably from a stray bullet. _'Clumsy, gotta watch that again_.' "Ouch." He finally says as he tapes up his injuries. He takes a deep breath as he looks around before removing his mask. He pulls his phone out; about to call the police before he thinks back to kid, a big dilemma on his hands. "I'll give him more time. He'll make the right decision. He has to." He says before he stands up.

Zipping down his blue tactical jacket and flipping it inside out to a brown leather jacket and looking at the stitches in the material he had to make because of Superboy. He rolls his eyes as he puts his jacket on and places the mask inside his backpack. He looks around for any cameras or people before he walks away, going to the street, blending in. His phone buzzes; the back tracer program he ran traced the phone back to a large warehouse area. He compares it to the Intel from the hall. "Well that narrows it down. Time to get to work."


	4. Experiment

"Experiment"

* * *

 **Warehouse Area, National Harbor  
20:16 EST**

The Team deployed on a building overseeing the warehouse. The place was quiet as night sky began to settle in. They were all in their stealth tech.

Aqualad nodded to Miss Martian. Her eyes glowed as a familiar feeling all went through their heads.

Miss Martian: _"Everyone online?"_

Everyone: _"Yup."_

Aqualad: " _Anything?"_

Robin: _"Security cams disabled. From the looks of it they scrubbed the footage."_

Kid Flash: _"My goggles can't see anything on the other spectrums, I-wait. I see a trail, aircraft was here."_

Superboy: _"Nothing on infrared. I can only see 2 heat signatures."_

Zatanna: _"So the place is empty?"_

Rocket: _"The data from the shipping manifests said something is going down here tonight."_

Miss Martian: _"So what now?"_

Aqualad: _"Now we wait."_

Zatanna: _"It's still pretty cold."_ She said as she buttoned up her jacket.

Kid Flash: _"As soon as this is over, I'm going to get some food. I'm starving."_

Artemis: "When are you ever not starving?"

Kid Flash: _"Fast metabolism."_ He shrugs. _"What can ya do?"_

Superboy: _"Guys wait, I hear something."_

Rocket: _"Is it the warehouse?"_

Superboy: _"No, movement. 2 buildings down from here."_ He pointed to the building down below. _"There."_ He pointed at the guy on the building below.

Kid Flash: _"Is that him?"_

Superboy: _"Yup."_

Aqualad: _"Take him."_

Superboy: _"With pleasure."_

...

Superboy snuck behind the thief and tackled him to the ground. The team followed as Superboy held him down. Robin handcuffed him as they placed him against the door of the roof. They unmasked him.

"Ow." The thief said. "Third time's a charm. Hey everyone."

"Caught red-handed." Robin said chuckling.

"Great. Now can you let me go?" He said as he struggled against his cuffs.

"First things first. You betrayed us? Why?" Aqualad asked.

The thief shrugged. "What's that old saying? Trust but verify? Anyways, I don't have to explain myself to you. And besides, I didn't technically betray you. So don't take it too personally. In this line of work, it's everyone for themselves."

"You used us." Robin said. "It didn't matter though, whatever you tried to take from the Hall computer stayed there."

"Okay? You're point being? I got what I needed, you got what you wanted: the truth. I even left the intel for you guys."

Robin laughed. "You? You left the Intel for us? I highly doubt that."

Conner crossed his arms. "Yeah right."

"Hey, whether or not you trust me, I can at least tell you this. I didn't lie about anything."

"But you're not telling us the whole truth." Artemis narrowed her eyes. "What aren't you telling us? How do you know so much?"

"I already said all you need to know. I'm just a guy trying to do what I know is right."

"Except you're not." Robin continues, "You could have easily turned this information to the League. Would have saved us all the trouble."

"Like they would have believed me. They won't take my word with a grain of salt. You guys barely did."

"You don't know that."

"Trust me boy wonder I do. You haven't seen what I've seen. You have no idea what you're up against. And pardon the pun, you're out of depth here. Besides, I made a choice, and I'm seeing it through to the end. Whether or not you guys believe me, I don't care. Now, please let me go."

Aqualad crosses his arms. "We'll turn you over to the League. They'll see if they can find anything useful with your connections to the criminal world."

"Wait, you can't do this me. I've come too far. I need answers." He struggled against his cuffs.

"So do we. Miss Martian, check his mind."

Miss Martian's eyes started glowing red; as it did he started begging. "NO! Wait! Stop. I'll... Just stop." He said sadly, his face dropping.

Everyone all looked at him confused. "What?" Rocket asked.

He sighs. "I'll get out of your way. Just let me go." He says with his eyes half-lidded, his face terrified and at the same time tired.

"What makes you think we would believe you and agree with this?" Conner asks. "You're a criminal just like the rest of them. And you've been doing nothing but get in our way."

"I'm just trying to do what's right. What I know is right. Please, the last thing you want to do is to probe my mind."

Everyone looks at each other.

Miss Martian: _"Now?"_

Aqualad: _"Yes. Go."_

Artemis sighs as she kneels down in front of him. Looking at his face. Everyone looks at them, puzzled. She grabs the keys and takes off his cuffs. "There."

"Wait, you're letting me go?" The thief looked at them confused.

"Um, yeah Artemis, why are you letting him go?" Rocket asked.

"I've been where you are. I've made my fair share of mistakes. And I made a choice. So here's your choice. You can choose to leave, and we won't see you again. Or you can choose to double cross us, and we take you to the League. Your call." Artemis said as he looked up at the thief.

The thief narrowed his eyes. He stood silent, taken back by her words, contemplating on his next move. He nodded. "I'll stay out of your way. And if you're lucky, you won't see me ever again."

"Wouldn't have it any other way." Conner said. "Don't get in our way again."

"Thanks blondie, I owe you one." He said as he put on his mask. "See ya when I see ya, or not."

"Wait, I hear something. Helicopter. No, I hear two."

Kid Flash turned on his goggles. "Where? I don't see it."

"Scan through all filters, 2 second intervals." The thief said as he stared at the warehouse. Everyone looked at him. He shrugged. "It's the visor. Your mystery buyer's tech is more advanced than I've ever seen."

"Uh, thanks. They're cloaked. But guys, the buy is going down now. We have to go."

"I'm hearing multiple people coming in." Conner added.

"We need to go now." Aqualad said. "Can we trust you to leave?"

"For what it's worth, which is probably a little, yeah; you can trust me on this. Bye." He said as he turned they all turned around. The thief launched a small little device that latched onto Artemis' quiver. He shot a grapple line, swinging down as he left. A motorcycle whirring away in the distance.

"Superboy is he gone?" Miss Martian asked.

"He's long gone. Far away from here." Superboy confirmed.

Robin: _"A little out of character don't you think Artemis?"_

Artemis: _"Maybe a little. But, wasn't all an act. I've been where he's been. I made the same mistakes he did with my dad. But thanks to you guys I found something better. Hopefully he'll find the same. And let's hope we know what we're doing as well."_

Robin: _"If it all goes according to the plan, then yeah. Let's go."_

* * *

 **Inside the Warehouse  
21:00 EST**

"I take it we have an accord?" The buyer said as the team breached the warehouse.

The team looked around the facility. The place was dimly lit, the chemicals giving the atmosphere, it was swarming with a bunch of guards, and from what they counted it was 20 at least. The warehouse looked old on the outside, but contained multiple shipping crates and large chemical tubs hanging from the ceiling. The team were all scattered around the facility, all trying to canvas the scene.

Zatanna: _"What is this place?"_

Kid Flash: _"From the looks of it, it's some kind of warehouse."_

Aqualad: _"We're trying to identify the buyer. But we can't see him. Robin, Artemis do you have a visual?"_

Artemis: _"We can't identify the buyer."_

Robin: _"Not without getting too close to him."_

Rocket: _"What do we do?"_

Miss Martian: _"I'm in camouflage mode, on my way to intercept."_

Superboy: _"Wait, listen."_

 _Miss Martian: "I see three groups, sending images now."_

Superboy: He narrowed his eyes. _"Wait, that's apokoliptian technology."_

The team all received the images. There was a large amount of shipments of apokoliptian tech, a stocky, middle aged, thick necked man with a bowl cut and a unibrow. The other squad looked like they were Queen Bee's militia.

Rocket: _"Is that-"_

Miss Martian: _"Queen Bee's militia."_

Kid Flash: _"Who's the other guy?"_

Superboy: _"Ugly."_

Kid Flash: _"No doubt."_

Superboy: _"No, I mean his name is Ugly. Bruno 'Ugly' Mannheim. He's the leader of Intergang. I met him last year with the Forever people. Tread carefully M'gann."_

Miss Martian: _"I will Conner."_

Robin: _"We need to identify the last person. Miss Martian, move in closer."_

Miss Martian: _"Stand by."_

Miss Martian moved closer as the team all waited. She watched them as she waited for the buyer to leave the shadows. The buyer was talking to Ugly and the militia.

"So how can I trust that this tech is viable Ugly? We still need some run some tests on the other new gear with subjects." The buyer asked.

Ugly scoffs. "When has Intergang ever let you and your guys down? It wasn't our fault that the Santa Prisca op was a bust. Besides, you benefited nicely, ever since Sportsmaster was caugh-"

"Don't disrespect Sportsmaster, it's not his entirely his fault. Still, the main objectives were completed. He's right where we need him to be." He narrowed his eyes, sensing something was wrong. His comm beeped. He nodded. "So tell me, how does this thing work?" He finally stepped out of the shadows, grabbing the tech out of the box. He looked at Bruno who nodded.

"Well, hehe, you just point and shoot. System's already calibrated. No need to get your hands dirty."

"But I do enjoy the work. Mind if I try?" He said as Bruno handed him the large red gun.

Miss Martian: _"I've identified the buyer. I'm sending a mental image now."_

Aqualad: _"Understood."_

The buyer was a tall man, he had a large sword with a utility belt, he was wearing black and grey armor with goldenrod greaves and gauntlets, and a large grey ponytail coming from his helmet. His helmet was black and goldenrod split down the middle.

Artemis: _"That looks like- oh no. M'GANN! GET OUT OF THERE NOW. It's Deathstrok-!"_

Robin and Artemis both turned around as they got ambushed by the guards.

Miss Martian: _"Robin? Artemis?!"_

The buyer turned the gun to the air where Miss Martian was. A red bolt shot out as Miss Martian decamouflaged as she screamed, falling to the ground. The buyer went to Miss Martian as he placed a foot on her chest, the gun aimed at her head. "It appears that we have intruders. Take them all."

Superboy: _"Miss Martian?!"_

The Team was taken down as Artemis, Robin, and Miss Martian were all being taken. Aqualad and Rocket were captured and shocked from behind. Superboy was about to jump down before being shot by a kryptonite dart by the buyer. Zatanna, Rocket, and Kid Flash were shot by the apokoliptian electric guns, knocking them out.

The buyer sighs as they took the team, tying them up and placing inhibitor collars on them. "So much for savoring the battle. Oh well, I'm sure I'll get my chance when they wake. Tie them up and disarm them. We still have a few tests to run here." He grins.

"As you wish Deathstroke."

* * *

 **Blüdhaven, the edge of town  
January 9, 21:34 EST**

Breaking through the corroding 'Do not Enter sign', two motorcycles stopped dead in the neighborhood. Black Canary and Green Arrow looked around, no one in sight. The place was deserted.

"*Black Canary to Batman do you copy?*"

"*I copy. Have you and Green Arrow found a lead?*"

"*Better," Green Arrow chimes in, "we found out where the kid lives. It's an abandoned house near the abandoned steel factory, edge of town.*"

"*The Watchtower was able to find his safe-house through facial recognition*" Black Canary types on her phone. "*We're sending you the coordinates.*"

"*Coordinates received, I will rendezvous with you as soon as possible. In the meantime, find out whatever you can.*"

"*Roger that. Canary out.*"

She took notice at the skid marks on the floor in front of the small house's garage, bending down and examining it. "Motorcycle tracks, but it's not fresh. He hasn't been here in a while."

Green Arrow nods in agreement. They both take the steps into the small house, which was barely a floor up and had a garage. The steps creaked as they peered into the main room, Green Arrow stops to take in the sight. "Wow."

"I know. This place is a mess." Canary adds as she looks around. Apart from the dark atmosphere, in the small living room they were in the walls looked like they were tearing apart, the floors creaked as they looked around for a light switch, and all they could see was a small amount of food, cash, a couple of sketches, some tools, a diary, and a worn down guitar on the tearing couch. "At least it doesn't smell."

"Actually, I was gonna say this looks better than my room back in college." He chuckles.

"Of course it does." Black Canary rolls her eyes and smiles as she finds a light switch. They both start looking around the room. As they look around, Canary stops and sighs. He catches it, waiting for her to speak. "While we're here, I've been meaning to ask, how is Red by the way?"

Green Arrow rubs the back of his head. "He's..; well he's just trying to get through this. He's been at my apartment, trying to sort through this. He's been trying to figure out when he, well when _Roy_ was replaced."

"You know he could come and see me at the Cave."

He runs a hand through his hair. "Thing is, I don't think he _wants_ to, and he doesn't want you or anyone to visit either. I've been trying to get through to him."

"He just went through a traumatic experience, finding out he was the mole and betraying everyone. He doesn't deserve to go through this alone."

"I hope he sees it that way too."

"Try to convince him to come by."

"I will. For now, let's find some answers on this Agent X." They continue looking around.

Black Canary continues through the end of the house, stumbling upon a small file with the words 'INSIDER CASE NOTES'. "Actually, I think I've found something better."

…

 **Washington, near the warehouse district  
21:40 EST**

"What a total bust." The thief said as he pushed his motorcycle to the McDuffie's Coffee Convenience Cafe. He parked it near the gas refilling station as he sat down on the curb, taking off his mask and running a hand through his brown hair in frustration. _'These past few days have been a total bust. Captured by the Justice League and their team twice in one night and busted again tonight. Just my kind of luck. Now, I'm so close to getting answers and I'm reduced to begging not to get my mind probed by the redheaded Martian.'_ He winces at the thought of the Martian going through his mind. _'You're doing great E, just solid.'_

He pulls out his wallet to find a few bucks of cash. He walks into the store, completely empty except for the one guy at the counter and the TV barely audible near the fireplace. He walks up to him. Asking him for a Hot Italian Cocoa with 6 sugars.

"Rough night?" The kind old bartender asks as he pours the milk. "What's a kid like you doing out in a time like this?"

The thief's brown eyes drop, before regaining himself and answering the question. "Usually is, but what can you do? And I uh, got nowhere to go right now."

"Yeah, I hear you. Storm's usually kinda rough on people like me too. But if ya want some advice from an old guy like me, where you are right now ain't where you'll be later. So keep moving. You know what I mean kid?"

The thief smiles, as if a good memory spurred back to him. "Yeah... I do, thanks sir. And thanks for the Cocoa. How much?"

"On the house." He says smiling.

"Are you sure? I'd rather pay you, I mean you probably need the money more than I do and I'd rather you not get in trouble."

"Oh no, it's fine. It's not like anyone's here to notice am I right?"

"I still think I should at least pay you."

The old man looks over his shoulder to the fireplace at the end of the cafe. "If you can get that fire started I'd say that thanks enough."

The thief looked the fireplace and smiled, "I'll see what I can do." He says as the old man walks away, probably to go get something. The thief slips the change into the tip jar as he walks to the fireplace. He shifted through his sling backpack, grabbing his mini laser, looking around before finally starting a small fire. He pulls a chair next to the fire place and starts to get a little warm while he takes a granola bar from his bag and eats it. He looks at the TV; it's a bunch of supers rescuing some people in a mini earthquake.

He drops his gaze to the look at fire, before closing his tired eyes as he leans back on the chair, remembering.

He remembers feeling lost, tired, and afraid. _I can't do this without you._

 _I'm sorry, but you'll just have to. Don't waste it. Don't waste your life._ He remembers him pointing at him.

He opens his eyes. Looking at the fire. His stare looking at something past the fire, something far away as he take clenches his jaw at the memory.

He looks down to fire wondering. He honestly doesn't know why he's still here. Maybe he's still hopeful for some answers, or the fact that the bug he planted has a really bad range. _'Or maybe because I've got nowhere to go. I've gotten this far, but maybe I don't know what I'm doing anymore. But I know I can't stop here. I have to find another lead. I have to try.'_

He grabs his bag, grabbing the guy's phone he snatched from earlier. _'I can start with this.'_ Then his other phone spurs to life. _'It's probably just the bug's range. Probably found it and ditched it.'_ He shrugs off the thought, as he was about to turn it off he heard a voice coming from the speakers.

"*As you wish Deathstroke.*"

He jerks his body up as he pulls the communicator from his pocket. ' _Wait, I've heard that name before.'_

He searches through bag and pulls out his makeshift phone, typing in the name and finding a match.

 _'Deathstroke. Perfect. This is what I need. Guess the mission isn't over. I'm out of here. Now I just need to refill the gas and bail. Guess it wasn't a total—'_

"*Poor little sidekicks, disarm and restrain them. I want them to be awake when they see this. Prep them. After the demonstration, we'll kill them. We have specific instructions. Our employers don't want any loose ends."

"*Understood.*"

 _'Wait what? They've been captured?'_

"*Mannheim, our business has been concluded. Until next time.*"

"*Sir, I'm detecting an outgoing signal coming from one of them. Range is small.*"

"*No help is coming for you. Activate the signal jammer. We do not want any unwanted visi—*" The audio cuts out as he tries to type of his phone, trying to get it back.

 _'Feed's gone. I got nothing.'_ He puts on his mask as the visor lights up zooming in on the helicopter leaving the warehouse.

 _'No. They're in trouble. I have to help them—no, don't be stupid. I'm sure they'll be fine. They've probably done this before. I got my answers, besides, it's Deathstroke. Me going in there to help is complete suicide.'_ He looks at his bag, the contents were just a few smoke grenades, his laser emitter, and his wrist mounted grappling hook. _"And I'm low on everything. Barely any knockout gas, no foam, no cover. If I go in there, I'll might as well bring a shovel and dig myself my own grave."_

"Screw it." He drives away.

..

Aqualad shook his head, his vision clearing as he tugged at his wrists; he heard a large _CLANG_ as he found out that he was chained to the others, all tied down with inhibitor collars around their necks, stripped of all their gear. He looked around the warehouse, at the end he saw the hostages near a large machine, next to their gear.

"Is everyone okay?" He said in a whisper as he tugged at the cuffs to wake them up. He heard some of them groan as they woke up.

"We're fine." Artemis groaned as she woke up. She looked around as she tugged at Robin and KF's wrists. Robin slowly lifted his head as he woke up. "Rob, you good?"

"I'm—ugh, fine. Batman's gonna get mad at us for being so sloppy."

"Can you get us out of these?" Aqualad said as he focused on Deathstroke, not averting his gaze as he whispered to Robin.

"Give me a few minutes. Can you wake up Zatanna?" Zatanna lifted her head up. "Zee, can you get us out of this?" Silence came out as he noticed the inhibitor collar lighting up. "The collar must be keeping you quiet. They've thought of everything."

Superboy jerked his head as he woke up, tugging hard on his cuffs. "We have to get out of—"

"I wouldn't recommend that." Deathstroke's voice swept through the air. He walked toward them as he pulled out his sword, placing it on Aqualad's chin. "Not unless you want to live through this. Oh, and don't bother trying to escape or call the league, it's not worth the effort, at least not with the hostages around."

"You mean until you kill us." Kid Flash snarled. Robin started picking at the cuffs.

"Well, yes. And since fighting you is beneath me, I've been ordered to give you a quick death, but not until after this."

"Who are you?" Rocket groaned as she woke up.

"His name is Deathstroke." She glared at Deathstroke.

"Hello Artemis, good to see you're as spry as ever."

"Hello Slade, it's been a while. Glad to see Vandal's scraping the bottom of the barrel recruiting you and replacing my dad. What, they couldn't break my dad out of prison?"

He chuckles. "As always, it's not good to see you. And for you information, this arrangement is temporary, but mutually beneficial."

"Look, if you are gonna kill us get it over with already." Artemis said as she narrowed her eyes.

"As much as I'd like to, I have specific instructions for each of you, but I can guarantee you will all die soon enough."

"So why keep us alive?" Aqualad asked.

"Well, for all the work we did hiring an asset to lure you into this trap, I'll say we're savoring the moment. Still, regardless that he was caught, the job was done."

"So Agent X was working for you? Why?"

"Agent X? Never heard of him. I was assuming we were talking about the idiot operative I had to recruit for the Rev-tech job; it was intentional that you were tipped about the rev-tech job, only for him to get caught by the authorities and placed in jail. Oh well, it doesn't matter. Regardless, you're here now for this, and that's all that matters."

"I guess the thief was telling the truth." Aqualad murmured as they all looked at Deathstroke.

He gestured to the end of the room, where they took one of the hostages, a male and placed him in the machine, silencing his screams as the machine closed up and began to turn on.

"The hostages. Don't this. You can do whatever you want with us, but let them go."

"Watch." The machine powered up, the lights began to flicker rapidly as the whole warehouse started to shake, the hostages screams were growing louder as the team tried to struggle to get out of their cuffs, Robin relentlessly picking at his. The whole warehouse started to stop shaking as the screaming stopped, the only thing audible was the cries of the hostages and Deathstroke. Robin picked at the locks of their cuffs, he was almost there.

"How long will this take?" Deathstroke asked one of his enforcers, arms crossed and not amused.

"It should be done soon, what about the other test?"

"You mean the force-field generator? If subject test goes as bad as the last time, I think now would be the perfect opportunity."

"It's done." The other enforcer said at the end of the room, the machine humming to a low sound.

"Good, pack it up, we're leaving." Deathstroke said as he placed in his communicator. "*It's done.*"

"*Excellent. What about the children?*"

"*Oh. Of course, I'll handle them.*" He gestured to the henchmen as they all aimed at the Team. "Don't worry. This will be quick. Oh and Artemis, I'll tell Rose you said hi."

"I wouldn't do that if I were you." Superman's voice echoed through the room.

"Superman?" Deathstroke looked around, _'How did he find us?'_ he narrowed his eyes as everyone searched through the warehouse. "Come out Boy Scout!" A laser shot near Deathstroke as his men fired everywhere. "Cowardly aren't you?"

A figure jumped over him and the team, covering them with smoke bombs as he landed to the ground. The large body of smoke engulfing the whole team and a few guards, Deathstroke focused on the figure and tackled him as he landed, pinning him to the wall and choking him.

"You're not Superman." He said to the thief.

"What tipped me off?" He struggled as Deathstroke squeezed his grip on his neck.

"So, whose sidekick are you supposed to be?" Deathstroke chuckled as he tightened his grip.

"Nobody's. I'm more of a freelancer." Deathstroke irritated pulled off his mask, looking at the brat. "Dude. Seriousl-ack" He croaked as his grip on his neck grew tighter. The thief struggled against him as his he felt his chest tightening.

"Dangerous waters you're getting into kid."

"Ach-Believe or not, I'm getting pretty good at swimming in them." He placed another hand around his neck as he was about to snap it when he turned around and realized the smoke hadn't cleared from the Team. He heard the boy wonder cackle as the restraints dropped. Superboy and Aqualad immediately tackled him into the wall, dropping the thief. "JL's-ugh-coming, so either way, you lose Terminator."

Aqualad and Superboy picked him up as Deathstroke stood up and saw the Team, with 2 of his guards knocked out. He chuckles. "No matter, you still have your inhibitor collars." He said as he pulled the remote from his— _'Wait, where's the remote?'_

The thief chuckled as he pushed the remote, the collars dropping to the ground. "Lose something?" Deathstroke narrowed his eyes. "Pretty bad odds." He said as he placed his mask on.

"For you." Deathstroke took out his sword as the rest of the goons all looked in fear. Some of them started running to helicopters.

Kid Flash ran to the end of the warehouse grabbing all their gear and bringing it back.

Aqualad: _"Miss Martian, is the whole team online?"_

Everyone: _"Yes."_

Aqualad: _"Go."_

Miss Martian pinned him to the wall. "*Release the asset! Seal them in. Prepare a tube.*" Deathstroke radioed as he threw small flashbangs at Miss Martian. She jerked back as KF caught her. Superboy, Aqualad, and Robin charged at Deathstroke as he took out his sword.

A large red force field started immediately covered the whole warehouse as all but two henchmen remained near the machine. "They're sealing us in! What do we do?" Agent X said to Rocket and Zatanna.

Rocket: _"We need to secure the hostages."_

Zatanna: _"Let's go."_

Agent X stood there confused at the silent treatment and looks the team gave each other as they split up. "Okay, just follow you, got it."

"Miss M, you good?" Kid Flash said as she fluttered her eyes open. "Yeah, I— move!" Deathstroke charged at them as Miss Martian and Kid Flash dodged them while Aqualad and Robin attacked him from behind. Robin and Aqualad threw everything they had at him as KF sped around Deathstroke. Artemis shot her arrows at Deathstroke as he sliced the out of the way.

Agent X, Zatanna, and Rocket knocked out the only 2 guards near the machine's control console onto the side.

Rocket and Agent X knelt down to the hostages. "It's okay; it's going to be fine." She said as she started releasing the hostages. One of the hostages pointed to the metallic figure before Agent X turned to the panel to try and disable either the force field or it.

"Controls are locked. And the force field's coming from an external source. I can't disable the machine or the force field." Agent X said as a guard woke, firing a gun.

"Look out!" Zatanna tackled him to the floor as she looked at the guard. "Ekam eht nug yvaeh!" The gun and the guard dropped to the ground as Rocket charged at him, knocking him out.

"Um, thanks." X stared at Zatanna.

"No prob." They both stood up as the machine started to open. _'Rocket, secure the hostages now.'_

KF: _"Who's up for the Blockbuster maneuver?"_ They all grinned.

Aqualad: _"Artemis set it up."_

Artemis shot her arrows as Deathstroke was being kicked back by Robin. KF sped right behind as Miss Martian kinetically pushed him back.

Superboy: _"GO!"_

Superboy and Aqualad punched him, his katana flying away as Deathstroke fell to the ground.

"Surrender." Aqualad said as they walked up to him. Deathstroke stood up, making a large cracking sound with his neck and knuckles.

He threw small bombs in the air as Miss Martian tried to push them away, exploding them. He then picked up Superboy and tossed him into Aqualad, knocking Aqualad out momentarily. He charged to Robin and traded blows, finally Robin was able to sweep him off his feet, but he jumped up and punched him into the crates. Artemis shot two concussion arrows behind Deathstroke, who turned around and grabbed them, barely grazing his mask. He tossed them to the ground as he started kicking Artemis and finally she gut punched him with her bow, he grabbed her bow and smacked her across into the crates, grabbing her by the neck.

"Your father and I taught you well." He dropped her to the floor. "What a waste." He looked over as an electric boom crackled through the air near the guards, a boom tube opening.

He ran to the two guards and picked them up, walking through the tube. "I have my orders, so until next time."

Zatanna, Agent X, and Rocket with the hostages all ran to the team.

Rocket: _'Everyone okay?'_

Everyone all murmured as they woke up. They all stood up as a bright red light began to emanate from the machine.

"Guys, you can make faces at each other later. We can't get out and we have another problem." Agent X pointed to the machine as a figure stepped out of it, the hostage, who was now covered entirely in shifting metallic black and grey, with a red eye that started lighting up.

Artemis: _'What is that thing?'_

Aqualad: _'It looks like a robot.'_

"Move!" X screamed as the red eye aimed at them, charging up as laser shot out of it.

Robin: _'Lasers! It's got lasers!'_

Aqualad: _'Superboy!'_

Superboy: _'On it!'  
_

Robin: _'Guys I think that's the guy from the tube! Aqualad, what's the plan?'_

Aqualad: _'We save him. Rocket, Zatanna, stay and keep the hostages safe and try and get through the force field.'_

Superboy charged at the guy, punching him until the robot grabbed him and started blasting him with his laser. Artemis and Robin provided cover with her arrows and batarangs.

 _'Woah,'_ KF put on his goggles, _'this guy is giving off some insane levels. Keep your distance.'_ Agent X jumped in as he aimed his laser at the figure, who dropped Superboy to fire his laser at X, who dodged it. _'Did he not hear what I said?'_

Rocket: _'He's not in the mind link KF.'_

KF: _'Ah, right. Guys, cover me I'm picking up SB.'_

Artemis and Robin started covering fire as Agent X fired his laser from the side while Aqualad and Miss Martian tackled him.

Artemis: _'You're clear!'_

KF dashed to Superboy, picking him up as Aqualad attempted to subdue the metallic figure. Aqualad was picked up by the robot and tossed up in the air, Agent X jumped up to catch him as the fell to the ground. Agent X was about the charge the robot. "X, wait!" Aqualad turned to M'gann. _'Miss Martian link us all up!'_

Aqualad: _'Agent X wait!'_

Agent X: ' _What the? You're in my frigging head? Doesn't matter, we have to stop this guy.'_

Aqualad: _'All of us are. We need to provide a coordinated attack if we are to stop it.'_

Agent X: _"Both of you move!"_ Aqualad and Miss M moved off of the experiment as Agent X threw the clay bomb, engulfing him.

Zatanna: _"I don't think that will hold him for long. We have to get out of here."_

Agent X: _'Agreed, my lasers have zero effect on trying to tear whatever that is off of him.'_

Aqualad: ' _We need to disarm him and save him.'_

Agent X: ' _What do have in mind? We still gotta break through the force field and take the fight away from the hostages. He seems targeted on them and my glorified light show ain't drawing him away.'_

Robin: _'Agreed. Can we break through the force field?'_

Zatanna: _'My magic can't cut through; I'm not—look out!'_ The robot broke through the clay as the red eye on his head began to expand. "Ekam stniartser tuo fo eht yalc!" She tried on the robot, but for some reason it didn't work. "That's not—"

"Wide dispersal initiated." His red eye began to expand as it aimed at the team. All of a sudden his hands turned into cannons, aiming everywhere.

Superboy: _'MOVE!'_

Aqualad: _'Rocket can you contain him?'_

Rocket: _'On it!'_ He phased right through as Rocket contained him in the bubble. He jumped towards the hostages as Rocket grabbed them in her bubble. _'I can't contain him, he keeps phasing through!'_

Zatanna: _'My magic can't seem to work on him either.'_

Robin: _'The suit seems to be adapting. We still have to save the hostage in there. Rocket secure all the hostages.'_

Artemis: _'So how do we stop him? We can't get close to him.'_

Kid Flash: _'On top of that his energy output, it is getting bigger.'_

Aqualad: ' _Miss Martian, go through his mind!'_

Miss Martian: _'I've been trying; his mind is hard to breach. It's as if he's gone. Distract him and cover me.'_

Aqualad: _'Go! We need to do everything we can!'_

Superboy, Aqualad, and Kid Flash charged him from different sides while Artemis and Robin covered them, Agent X just followed suit and threw some smoke onto the robot. Miss Martian breached through his mind, only for the feedback to knock out the mind link.

All of a sudden, the robot's red eye started to crackle.

"He's gonna blow!" Agent X screamed as they ran to Rocket.

"Everyone get behind me!" Rocket generated a large bubble surrounding the others. The person exploded as a bright red burst of energy shook the ground, the shock wave rippling into the walls of the force-field, destroying the warehouse but keeping it contained in the force-field.

They all emerged from the rubble, Rocket's bubble still shielding all of them. "Everyone alright?" Rocket said exhausted.

"There's no fallout, you can drop your shield." Agent X said as he stood up, her bubble dissipating.

"He's right, whatever that was, and it's not giving off anything right now. That explosion could have leveled 3 blocks, thanks to the force field, it was on contained to the warehouse area." Kid Flash said as Robin went over to the rubble, picking up a small red tube and shoving it in his belt. He looked to the ground, and found a piece of Deathstroke's sword.

Miss Martian looked at the where the experiment stood, "What, what happened? Did I—"

"Energy was already increasing before we could do anything. It wasn't your fault he went nuclear, we couldn't save him." Kid Flash said as they all dropped their head in sadness, a hostage killed because they couldn't stop it.

Agent X walked to where he stood, and dug through the rubble, finding a small wrist shaped device and shoving it into his bag discreetly. "Damn it." He said as he pounded the ground. Everyone walked to where he sat, looking down, at a loss for words of what has occurred.

Aqualad turned to Zatanna, who was checking on the hostages. "Are they okay?"

"Yeah. They're all fine." Zatanna said as the hostages began to cry in joy at their survival. "Just wish we could have saved all of them."

"We did what we could. We will not let this death go in vain." Aqualad said, turning to Agent. "But for now, thank you for the assist. It seems from what Deathstroke told us, you were telling the truth."

"No problem, glad I could help, for however little it was." He shook his hand. "Just wish it could have had a different outcome."

"I do have a question though. How did you know we were in danger, why did you come back?"

Agent X stammered, rubbing the back of his head, "Oh well, I kinda placed a device on—"

"You mean this thing?" Artemis tossed him the small device that they picked off her quiver. "Robin found a few minutes after."

He went to his pocket and picked up a similar device, tossing it to her. "No hard feelings."

"Still doesn't explain why you came back." Superboy crossed his arms.

"Look, I've got my reasons why I came back, but mainly it was the right thing do." Agent X rubs the back of his head, "And... I didn't want to be responsible for you guys dying. I have enough on my conscience as is. Besides, all I did was distract."

"Still, thanks." Aqualad said as the rest of the team nodded in thanks. Agent X gave a half smile as he looked to the force field.

"Yeah, now only one problem: how are we supposed to get out of here?" Kid Flash said as Superboy told everyone to stand back. He punched the shield, not doing much to it. Aqualad used his electricity, to no avail.

"Radio's jammed. Shield must be interfering with any signals." Robin said as the he shut off his computer.

"Let me try." Agent X said as he placed the small laser on his wrist. "My laser can't cut through it either."

Rocket turned to KF and Miss Martian. "Can you vibrate or phase through?"

"Can't, even if I successfully phase through, I'll get myself sliced in half by the time I reach the other side." Miss Martian said.

"Same goes for me, the energy seems to be shifting at an alarming rate. I would say dig a hole but the field curves inward." KF said as he looked at the force field's dome.

"Now what? We're just stuck here until someone come finds us?"

"Not necessarily Superboy. Look." Aqualad pointed up as the Justice League, minus Black Canary and Green Arrow all descended down. Soon the force field began to fluctuating and began to dissipate, the red shield eventually collapsing.

"They got my message." Agent X asked. "Didn't think it would actually go through."

"Aqualad what happened?" Batman stepped forward.

The hostages were carried away in stretchers as the Team explained to the League of what happened. The League was glad they are safe as each member checked on one another. Agent X stood far away, averting their gaze, hoping for them to lose track of him as he disappeared.

"We're glad you're all alright. As for the hostages, it turns out these were missing people from a few weeks ago, abducted but never found until today, they will be questioned and then sent back to their families as soon as possible." Superman said.

"Not all of them." Aqualad added.

"Someone died. He was used as an experiment. As a weapon." Superboy said clenching his fist.

"He was the cause of the explosion. We couldn't save him." Kid Flash said sadly.

"It wasn't your fault." Flash added.

"We know, but still, if there was a chance—" Aqualad sighed.

"It is okay Kaldur'ahm, for now all we can do is not let his death be in vain." Aquaman comforted Kaldur.

"You are right my king, but aside from what has happened tonight, it not only shows that Vandal and his allies are getting smarter, but they are getting more resourceful."

"He's right, they got some advanced tech like the force-field generator and the teleportation tubes, what else are they planning?" Robin added as the Team all looked to the League.

"Another question for another day. They keep the investigation moving forward, you saved lives, we will get answers soon." Batman said.

"We did not do it on our own; we had help from Agent X." Miss Martian added.

"Wait, where is he?" Rocket added.

"Don't worry about him. Leave it to us. In the meantime, go home and get some rest."


	5. Faulty Assets

"Faulty Assets"

* * *

 **Blüdhaven, the edge of town  
January 10, 04:06 EST**

"Home sweet home." He muttered to himself. Pushing through the rusting gate of the abandoned neighborhood, Agent X drove his motorcycle into his garage. Parking it against the wall, he noticed a stinging bruise on his arm, as well as a small tear on his jacket. Groaning and shrugging off the pain and the fact that he has to stitch it up again, he closed the garage door, dredging up the stairs of his dilapidated home, he walked inside, the cold breeze encapsulating the room, though not as much as he expected. He took off his mask, jacket, and bag, tossing it on the table and putting on a white shirt as he plopped on the couch, rubbing the back of his neck as he groaned in pain. He rubbed his arm; the bruise was slightly purple, wincing at the pain as he touched it. He noticed a slight draft coming from the corner, something was there.

He reached over to the coffee table, hoping to find his case notes. _'Wait, that's not right. Where's my—'_

"Lena?" He said lowly, looking around as he slowly reached into his bag for his laser emitter, waiting for a response. The floorboards creaked as 2 figures in shadows slowly stepped out. He grabbed his emitter, aiming it at them. "Don't. Move."

"You don't want to do that." A male voice said.

"Hello Agent X," A woman said in the dark corner of his room. "We're not here to hurt you."

The thief narrowed his eyes, still aiming. "You uh-sure? Because when someone says that they usually do. Show yourselves."

Black Canary and Green Arrow emerged from the corner, Canary going to the light switch to turn it on. The room lit up as Canary turned to the teen. "Relax; there's no need for that, we just want to talk."

He dropped his guard, surprised that they were here. "Black Canary? Green Arrow? Sorry, Ma'am, and sir," He adds quickly. "Force of habit. How did you—"

"You got sloppy." She said as he dropped his weapon.

"Still, you're a pretty hard guy to find." Green Arrow added. They started walking over to him as he plopped back on the couch.

He sighed in defeat, "Yeah, I've been noticing. Well, make yourselves at home." They started walking up to him as he ran a hand through his hair, but Canary could see that he was trembling with fear, trying to hide it. "I gotta say, I'm a fan of you guys." He adds lamely.

Neither said a word as Green Arrow grabs his mask off the table, examining it. "Thanks. This mask, is it carbon-tube and industrial poly carbonate?"

"Um-yeah, actually. Made it myself, modified with surveillance tech." He said, the edginess of his voice dropping.

"Nice." He said as he placed it back down.

"Um, thanks." He said as he lay back on the couch, running a hand through his hair. "So, not to be rude or anything, but straight to the point, why are you two here? Figured a common thief like me wouldn't actually garner the attention of the Justice League, thought you'd have more important things to do."

"We do, but the amount of intel you left us. It raises a lot questions."

"I already told Batman and his super squad everything I know. How you found me, though I'd like to know."

"I don't think so." A voice came from behind them. Batman, _the Batman_ , is in his house. "We need to talk."

He stands up as Batman steps inside the house. "Where did you—"He stops at the realization. "Wow. I- _wow_." He sat back in awe, plopping on the couch. "I never really evaded the Justice League back in D.C. did I? And your team, that's why they let me go. You hoped I'd be here, to confirm that it was my safehouse with the info that Black Canary and Green Arrow found in my case files." Canary and Arrow look at Batman, who just looked at the kid. Agent X ran a hand to the back of his head, as if he was feeling something behind his head. "Totally figured out the team part though, still, that's actually really smart. Nice Plan, honestly, props to you. It's the job. No hard feelings. I know when I'm beat, but let's cut to it. If you're here to arrest me, then go for it." He said in defeat as he sat back down.

"You can make it easy on yourself if you told us the truth."

"Sir, I told you all I know." He said calmly, staring at Batman's face as the whiteout eyes looked back at him, unyielding. "Truth's there. And like I said to your team, I'm just a thief. Nothing more and nothing less."

"But not the whole truth," Batman pulling out Agent X's case notes, tossing it on the table in front of him. "There's a reason why you needed access to the Hall's computer, and it wasn't for the fact of just hand delivering us the Intel. You needed it to not only decrypt the shipping manifest, but connect your data with the League's missions, which you attempted and failed to get, what we want to know is why." Agent X looked at him; his eyes were half lidded, confirming Batman's suspicion.

"What do you know about me?"

"That your alias isn't Agent X." Batman said as he stepped closer, Canary and Green Arrow sat down opposite of Agent X. "Your provisional license says your name is Eric James."

"Agent X is my undercover persona. Also Eric's my name, but last part, the James, isn't." He corrects.

"Your alias is Insider. Born in Manhattan, New York. Operative 514-189-3151." Eric stared at Batman, a neutral expression on his face. Batman continued. "We've crossed referenced you with Interpol, the CIA, NSA, and FBI, as well as 16 other government agencies. They have nothing on you, apart from the fact that you specialize in infantry, both in corporate and international espionage, as well as military tactics, and that you've been suspected to be linked in multiple cases around the world, as well as many thefts involving high captains of industry. As far as they're concerned, you're a criminal."

"Guess that means I must be doing my job right." He chuckles lightly. Canary looked at him; he could tell he was afraid. "Besides me stealing a bunch of corrupt CEO's wallets, what exactly do _you_ know?"

Batman continued, "Based on what we've read in your case notes, it tells a different story. You have ties with Helena Bertinelli, an Uncle Joseph, David Cane, the Russian mob, the Chinese mafia, Italians, the Yakuza, as well as others. And the fact that in said operations, you not only occasionally double crossed your employers; you also prevented many assassinations and thefts in the process, including one of Ted Kord, Patrick Dugan, as well as his daughter. We know enough."

"So what exactly are you asking me sir?"

"What we want to know is how a supposed common thief like you can come across the amount information you gave us at the Hall about the real secret society of supervillains, while anyone we've interrogated from the criminal underworld barely knows about anything beyond the Injustice League incident back on October 1st. You have holes in your story; I suggest you give us answers."

He sighed as he plopped back down onto the couch, running a hand through his hair, stopping at the base of his skull. "You want the whole truth?" Batman narrowed his eyes at the thief. He sighed as everyone looked at him, patiently waiting. He rubbed the back of his neck, exhaling a large breath.

"The real reason about why I know so much about them and what connects all of them is the same reason why I'm doing this. I know about the Vandal Savage and his group of individuals is because I was part of them, I worked for them." Batman, Green Arrow, and Black Canary looked at him with neutral expressions. "From all I could gather over past few years was that after the creation of the Justice League in 2006, Vandal Savage and a few others created the group that you call today the Light. Since the original League inductions and the constant expansions of the League over the years, they have been scheming in secret, spearheading projects and plans that no one knows besides their inner circle knows about. I was one of those projects, or well rather part of."

"What do you mean?" Canary said as she sat down next to him.

He rubbed the back of his head. "From what I've gathered one of the projects they worked on was reactivating a defunct military program. It was a task force designed to take on impossible and very suicidal missions, overseen by some of the core members of the light. They recruited us, mostly street orphans and runaways. Kids that wouldn't be missed. They trained us excessively, and they modified us through telepathy and enhancements. I was one of the few lucky ones that didn't get modified. In a span of a few months we were bred to be soldiers for their cause. Those who were considered the best were inducted into the black ops unit, codenamed: Task Force VII. I was the designated tech expert of my unit. Soon after we were deemed ready, they implanted us with electrical devices at the base of our skull to keep us in check and maintain focus on missions. And should we have failed or captured, we would be terminated. But we were kids; I guess they gave us more leeway as we just blindly followed their orders." He said as he turned around, showing the bag of his head, lifting his hair, he showed them, a small scar shaped like the letter X hidden behind his hair on the base of his skull.

"So what happened?" Green Arrow said as Eric turned to him.

"Eventually, after a few successful missions, we started to grow tired of just blindly following orders. We had organized a coup and rebelled against them. We negated the bombs in our heads and we hid most of the stuff we stole. Eventually, we were caught. I don't remember how long but for days or weeks, we were experimented, interrogated. Afterwards, a grey skinned telepath made us spill." He huffed. "It didn't matter though. They brought us to the warehouse where we kept everything we had, and threw us all in there, rigging it to explode. No loose ends. We were just made to be an example for any future betrayals within their organization. Guess to them we were just faulty assets." He rubbed the bridge of his nose.

"But I survived. I don't remember how or why, but I did. After what happened, I got to work. I wanted to go to the authorities, but I realized no one would believe a kid, or they could be working for them and I didn't want them to know I was alive. So now I'm here, after all this time, this is how far I got. Still fighting the good fight, at least to me. I learned that day, that with the amount of power they had, it was my responsibility to take it away from them." He sighed, narrowing his eyes. "So far I haven't been doing enough apparently."

"So why the break in at the Hall?" Batman asked as Eric turned to him.

"If you've been doing this for a while without getting caught why risk coming to the hall?" Green Arrow added.

"Ever since New Year's, things have changed. I don't know what happened, but the League wasn't anywhere, you guys practically disappeared. Selected criminals started robbing; multiple incidents and calls came in through police channels. For almost a full day, the League was nowhere to help. Local law enforcement as well as a few other non-league heroes cleaned up the mess. Everyone dismissed it as just random violence. I barely found out, being a low level operative. But I knew better. That's why I stole Rev-tech's data, and that's why I needed the hall, though with my limited knowledge, I'm not exactly a proficient hacker, which is why I used the hall's mainframe to connect all the pieces." He takes in a sharp breath as he rubs his temples. "But after today, what I saw with your team, with that _monster_ that they made, I realized the game has changed." He sucks in a breath as they all look at him, Black Canary and Green Arrow shocked, Batman narrowed his eyes. "It made me realize that the Light made a world where it's impossible to stand alone. But maybe, maybe there is another thing I can do." He goes through his bag, taking out the device he picked up from the explosion. Then he takes out one of the couch cushions, a safe underneath as he opened it, pulling out a data storage unit, turning to Batman. "All my life, a lot of my choices were made for me; nothing I ever did was my call. Everything was decided for me. But this time, this will be my call."

Batman takes the big device, "What is it?"

"A hard drive, it contains a copy of everything that I know and taken so far, and then some. A lot of the data is heavily encrypted and encoded, far beyond my capabilities, so hopefully this will be more helpful to you than me. It's got petabytes of data and information that I couldn't even begin to know how to decrypt."

"Why are you giving this to us?"

"Because I'm out of my depth here, and what they have been doing, in such a short time, there are no words to describe it, calling it terrifying would be an exaggeration. Besides, if I'm going to get turned over to the authorities, I might as well give it to the people I know is has never been under the Light's control." He said as he sat back down, all of them looking at him. "Can I just ask for two requests?" Black Canary and Green Arrow nodded as Batman contemplated his story, putting the drive in his belt. He exhales a heavy sigh. "Just tell me, when you guys beat them, tell me that it's over, and that you won."

"Of course. And the second?" Green Arrow asked.

He exhales, lying down on the couch. "Can I have like 10 minutes of sleep before you turn me over to the authorities? It's like 5 in the morning, so that'd be really nice at least, if not, that's fine, I'll sleep in the police car. Hopefully it's at least comfy."

Batman, Black Canary and Green Arrow all looked at each other as they looked back at the teen on the couch; they all nodded as they turned to him.

"We're not going to arrest you, the way I see it you have two options." Eric arches his eyebrows quizzically as he sits up on the couch, listening. "One, while we would have to arrest you eventually, based on your case notes and the fact that you gave us all your data as well as aid the team in saving hostages, you'll be given 24 hours to leave, but if we ever see you again..."

He exhales, his shoulders dropping. "You'll arrest me, I guess that's fair. And the second?"

"You'll work at Star Labs Gotham, but not without some terms and conditions. You'll be closely monitored and you'll help them decrypt the data you have acquired, still 'fighting the good fight', as you put it. Black Canary will be there waiting as she has other matters to attend to there. You have until then."

"That sounds tempting, but-"

"Were you expecting something else?"

"I was actually Sir. You would ask me to retire. But based on the way you've been looking at me this whole time and the fact that you read my case notes, you knew I was never going to stop, not while the mission isn't over."

Batman narrows his eyes as he, Black Canary, and Green Arrow step out of his house, Batman the last one to leave as he grabs the door handle, his eyes looking at the teen, who looked at him and then back at his mask. "24 hours. Make your decision."

* * *

 **Mount Justice  
January 10, 14:40 EST**

"*Cowl Video Replay Ending.*" The computer echoed as the video ended of them talking to thief. The Team, Batman, and Green Arrow all looking at each other.

"So... Case closed I guess." Robin said.

"Do you think he was telling the truth?" Zatanna asked.

"Based on the cowl's video and the fact that we were prepared this time, poly-graphical readings from Batman's cowl indicate he was, it's all there."

"Where is Agent X now?" Artemis asked as the Team turned to Batman.

"At the moment, we do not know. Still, we have more pressing matters to address." Batman said as computer screen popped up. "Based on some of the data Robin collected as well as your thorough reports, we still have no idea what the Light was planning or what they were doing at the warehouse. Nearly all evidence was destroyed in the explosion, and we don't have any satellite footage of any of the helicopters as well as Deathstroke. And the hostages we interrogated didn't see anything either. "

"More unanswered questions." Robin said as the team murmured in agreement.

"Questions keep the investigation moving forward, you saved lives. And while the loss of one of the hostages is tragic, it is best not to let his death be in vain. You were at least able to identify the buyers and find out that the Light has recruited Deathstroke to replace Sportsmaster. You did good work."

"And with all the data Robin and the League collected, it should help us investigate what happened and what they were trying to do to them." Green Arrow added.

"What about the data Agent X gave us?" Kid Flash asked. "Could you find anything there?"

Robin pulled up multiple screens. "The data on this thing is huge, completely encrypted, petabytes of stuff that could take a while to break through. Other than the stuff he gave us, I don't see us getting through this anytime soon."

"Robin and I will work on his data, and should Agent X join Star Labs, he can help decrypt it with our supervision." Batman said as he started preparing the tubes.

The Team all gave each other shrugging and contemplating looks as Aqualad turned back to Batman. "Perhaps we can offer another alternative for Agent X."

Batman, looking at them as he already knows what they're going to say. "It will have to be a unanimous vote. And the League will have to confirm his story and take the necessary precautions."

"Understood." Aqualad said as they all turned to each other.

Miss Martian: _"Everyone online?"_

Everyone: _"Yup."_

Artemis: _"So?"_

KF: _"So?"_

Robin: He rubbed the back of his head. _"He's a vigilante, so we have to consider everything."_

Aqualad: He rubbed his chin as he looked at them. _"He could be instrumental in stopping the Light. And his connection allows us to gain some insight on what they are up to."_

Zatanna: _"And to be fair, he did save us."_

Artemis: _"More than once."_

Rocket: _"He didn't have to come back, especially after what happened, but he did. We could have died."_

Superboy: _"But we didn't. Robin would have gotten us out."_

KF: _"Supey's right, we would have gotten out."_

Robin: _"Yeah, eventually, but still his distraction against Deathstroke was enough to release us. And based on his files, he could be a valuable alley."_

Miss Martian: _"Not only that he disabled the inhibitor collars."_

KF: " _It did buy us time. And based on what we saw in the footage, it looks like he's really determined to still continue even if we don't induct him to the Team."_

Superboy: _"Still, I guess the real question is can we trust him, with all of this?"_ Conner gestures to the Cave and to the Team. _'I mean he already knows about the mind link."_

Artemis: _"He's could have betrayed us last night but he didn't, Deathstroke didn't even know who he was."_

KF: _"I guess the question is do we need another incident with a mole like Red Arrow?"_

Everyone looked at each other as they contemplated heavily after what happened.

Rocket: _"Not only that, but are we going to do this with every new member?"_

Aqualad: He sighed heavily. _"I do not believe Savage and his allies will even attempt to do that again, considering the fact that we know now and are ready for it. But this does raise a lot of questions for new team inductions."_

Robin: _"Are we really though? Savage used one of our own against us; a longtime friend who we never suspected would be a traitor. We can't just accept people randomly now. Not only that, but now Batman and the League will have to have the proper contingencies in place."_ Robin said, slightly flinching at the end when he thought about more contingencies they would have to make.

Miss M: _"Also Uncle J'onn and I could check and confirm if he has any programming or anything else that he could be hiding."_

Aqualad: _"But what will that do to our moral? He's not an enemy. We cannot just invade their minds and look for any incentive of deceit. While it is smart, it's questionable authority."_

Miss M: _"We'll ask permission, we would never just invade-"_

Zatanna: _"We know Megs, but I don't think a lot of people will see it that way, they haven't been what we have been through."_

Rocket: _"And are we going to do this every time someone new comes aboard?"_

Kid Flash: _"I... don't know."_

Artemis: _"Still, there's nothing wrong with trying."_

Robin: _"Plus, even if he does betray us, we'll be ready for it. We have to be."_

Everyone: _"Agreed."_

"Made your decision?" Batman asked as the Team turned to him.

Aqualad stepped up. "We have. Now the last part will up to him."

...

 **STAR Labs Gotham  
January 10, 15:50 EST**

Black Canary looks over the Star Labs technicians as they modify the zeta tubes. A technician walks up to her, a tablet in his hand. "Ma'am, I believe that there's someone outside for you." Black Canary looks at the tablet. Eric was outside, wearing a brown hoodie jacket and dark jeans, a backpack slung over his shoulder. She thanks him as she hands the tablet back to him.

"So is he the new guy?"

"Yes Silas, now if you'll excuse me, we wouldn't want to keep our guest waiting." Canary walks to the front door as Eric stands there, rubbing his head as he shifts his weight from his one foot to the next. Canary smiles slightly, he was anxious.

"Hello." He says, running a hand through his hair. "I'm-uh, here to take up the offer."

"Come in." She says as he smiles slightly as she escorts him to the labs. As they walk through the corridors of the lab, she notices him looking around nervously. He looks at the teen, thinking of a way to break the ice. Then he sees his hair. "So Eric…"

He turns to her. "Yes Ma'am?"

"Did you cut your hair?" She sees him rub the back of his neck. "…And comb it?"

He shoots her a confused look, raising a brow. But he drops his tense shoulders slightly. "-Yeah, I did. I wanted to look presentable. I've noticed that I'm not good with first impressions. Wanted to try a make a better one today."

"Well it looks nice." She smiles at him reassuringly.

"Um-thanks Ma'am." He says smiling back. They walk through the long hallway. "So..." He says awkwardly as they walked, his shoulders slightly tensing up as he looked around. "You're not gonna arrest me right?"

"No, we're not."

"Good, cause I was scared for a moment." He said as he took in the Star Labs atmosphere, the tech he passed by as he looked around impressed him. "So, I gotta ask. Did you expect me to show?"

"Honestly, I don't know." She said sincerely. "If I may ask, why?"

He sighed, "I guess, I dunno really. Maybe second chances don't come around, and nobody wins wars on their own. And at least here, I guess I'll actually feel like I'm doing something with myself. Plus, I'm not dense enough to not accept an opportunity like this." He chuckles as he is finally led into the Zeta Room. All the scientists are looking at them. He turns who Canary, who was occupied taking a call. Looking at the Zeta Tube, he looked at it, confused at what it was. "What is that?" He asked the dark skinned scientist.

"Would you like to find out?" Black Canary said as she started walking up to them.

Eric looked at her, narrowing his eyes. "Something tells me there's a change in plans." He said as he tightened the grip on his bag.

"Yes, but I think you'll like this one." She said as she started walking to the Zeta Tube keypad. She turned to Eric. "There's another alternative for you, if you are interested."

"Am I going to jail?" He said, the edge in his voice coming back.

"Nothing like that, the Team wants to talk to you. They have a proposition." She said sincerely, Eric's tension dying down as he could tell she was being sincere. "Just one question, before making your decision. If you could continue your crusade, would you?"

He furrows his brows as he contemplates her question. A small grin on his face came as he said, "Yes." without missing a beat. "More than anything, yes, truthfully." He beamed. He walked up to the tube looking at it as he grasped his bag. He exhaled as he looked at Canary. "So this thing, it's some kind of transporter?" The scientist nodded as he Eric grinned. "Awesome. I trust you. Do it."

...

 **Mount Justice**  
 **15:59 EST**

"*Access Granted, Guest Authorized, A-0-4.*" The computer said as Eric stepped out, shaking his head.

"Woah." He looked around the cave as the tube's lights dimmed; he saw the Team, Batman, and Green Arrow. Immediately, the tube hummed again as computer announced Canary's arrival. He looked at Batman, Green Arrow, and Canary with confused looks as he turned to the Team.

Before he could say anything, Aqualad spoke. "Hear us out. Your connection with the Light and their activities has made you an asset, and based on what we know about you, our goals are the same: to defeat them. While your other options still stand, we believe you can be a valuable ally. But, if you do decide to join this team, it will not be without any terms or conditions, if you can understand. Either way, the decision is yours."

He looked hard at them as he turned back to Canary, Bats, and GA. He turned back to the Team, all in their costumes, standing there as he contemplated his decision. He rubbed the back of his head, feeling the small x scar on his neck. He gave a small smile as he nodded in confirmation. "I'm in."

"Welcome to the Team."

...

 **Undisclosed Location  
January 10, 10:15 EST**

Deathstroke walked up to the screens as they came to life, some of the members, particularly Queen Bee and Ra's al Ghul were missing. "The asset was once again faulty, though combining the alien technology with the synthetic xenothium had lasted longer than last time, and the force field and camouflage tests were somewhat successful. Though the children were not eliminated as intended, and the hostages got away."

Lex chuckled. "It doesn't matter for now. You did your work. While the children have been a thorn in our side, their efforts against us have been thus far meaningless. They'll get what's coming to them, eventually. For now, we must focus on other opportunities."

"Agreed." Vandal said. "With what we did to the League, sending them to Rimbor to wreak havoc as well as acquiring all their genetic samples, I'll say phase 1 has been a success. Now all we have to do is gather the rest of pieces into place. Anything else to report?"

"There was a minor inconvenience, as new character. My helmet camera took an image of this thief." He said as he showed the picture to them, Vandal looking at it, a smile creeping on his face.

The brain chuckled. "It appears we have another inconvenience on our hands. But he doesn't matter."

"Not yet." Vandal grinned. "A mistake has come back, and it will be rectified, soon."

"And what about our new distraction?" the brain asked. "Is it in place?"

"Yes, entrusted to Ra's, who is carefully overseeing its process. Project: Lords has begun."

 **A/N: Last chapter for this arc. Onto the next one. :)**

 **Some minor notes:**

 **While the Team was unanimous in the decision, not everyone is happy with it. Trust is earned not given. So I'll take step back with the action and focus more on that and how each of them react to him as well as the new problem coming up in their personal lives, but he is not a main focus of the majority of the story, he is just a character to play off of.  
Batman is not happy with this decision. But he trusts the team with it.  
Some minor revisions were made in the previous chapters.  
**


	6. What Lies Ahead

"What Lies Ahead"

* * *

 **Cadmus Warehouse, Undisclosed location**  
 **January 11, 09:12 EST**

Vandal Savage stood atop a balcony overseeing the warehouse contained with the large tubes filled with the genomorphs. The chill and quiet atmosphere of the warehouse soothing him as he takes a breath, "Soon," he grinned slyly. He then feels a large breeze coming from behind him, not bothering to turn around as he greets the figure, "Ra's."

"Vandal." Ra's said as he walked next to him, gripping the railing. "It appears Deathstroke has been a suitable replacement for Sportsmaster, just like old times."

"For now." he reminds him, "Our temporary partnership with Deathstroke has been proven fruitful, as with the weapons test at the warehouse and besides, we have Mr. Crock right where we need him."

Ra's grins. "Of course, but more to the point, is there a reason why you asked me to meet you here?"

"Yes, since we turned over Cadmus ownership to you, it has been beneficial."

Ra's looks over to the tubes, "Of course, since last year, the League's attempts to out Luthor as the founder of Cadmus has been fruitless, if anything, this arrangement both suits us and Lex, everything is off the books, and Lex keeps his reputation, and as for me, I get to oversee the projects per to our agreement."

"Speaking of projects, tell me, how is Project Lords?"

"Since we placed the League under control and before sending them to Rimbor, we were able to retrieve all the genetic samples that we needed to make one clone for each member, and learning from the mistakes of Match and the Superboy. Still, we had not acquired their memories, as that would have taken too long for the timetable."

"Will this be a problem?"

"No, it won't be. By close to year's end, the project should be complete."

"Good, is there anything else?"

Ra's narrows his eyes, contemplating. "Yes. A concern that most of us, including you, have had in regards to the League on Rimbor."

"Which is?"

"Is it possible for the League to find out ahead of the projected time?"

Vandal chuckles lightly, "They won't. Sending them to Rimbor, a planet far from the Earth's green lantern's sector and with the proper bribes in place, word of mouth won't be getting here anytime soon. Besides, I tend not to dwell on it, all we have to do is keep the League distracted. In the meantime we have more pressing matters to attend to, such as loose ends."

"Meaning?"

"The Superboy and Mr. Harper."

"Superboy will be taken care of, as for both Mr. Harpers, we have a plan set. Is there anything else?"

"Yes, I believe I heard that you have some loose ends to take care of as well."

"More like minor nuisances, a group of young entitled shadows." Ra's scoffs, "A debacle, as I know their intentions. I will handle it, quietly." Ra's says as he bends over the rail, noticing Savage looking at Roy's tube at end of the room. "It appears I am not the only one with a nuisance I hear."

"A minor nuisance at best, apparently Deathstroke encountered an old operative from our old Task Force Unit."

Ra's raises a brow, "A survivor? How?"

"Unclear, but nevertheless, what Psimon did to him, to the unit, wiping all their memories of their missions before their subsequent termination, we shouldn't have to worry. Though I believe his encounter with the Team now means he has now allied himself with them, and yet this could be advantageous to us, if we play our cards right."

"Agreed, and I believe I just know how to do that."

"We may have to require an old asset of Deathstroke's, have you identified the survivor?"

"No, but it doesn't matter. He'll be dead as well as the rest of the League's protégés."

"We may have to inform Queen Bee, and Psimon, to ensure his work."

"We will, but for now, Queen Bee is handling her own nuisance, as for us..." They turn to original Roy's pod.

"What lies ahead is only beginning."


End file.
